• Question: Do you think that teens should start school later in the day and finish later so teens can get more sleep?

    Asked by anon-188890 to Rachel, Michael on 3 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-189216.
    • Photo: Rachel Sharman

      Rachel Sharman answered on 3 Nov 2018:


      Hi. That is exactly what my research is trying to answer. As we hit puberty our circadian rhythm (our biological clock) delays by 1 to 3 hours. This means that waking a teenager up at 7am is like asking an adult to wake at 5am. This delay in the body clock happens to a lot of other mammals too.

      With my coworkers on the Teensleep project, we have just finished studying the sleep of 10 UK schools and if a sleep education programme can give teenagers the tools to try and get better sleep. We are just about to publish our findings on this study and plan our next study.

      In the USA, schools start a lot earlier (at 7am) so there is a huge movement of scientist trying to delay school start times. We are still trying to work out what would be the best for UK schools. We are trying to work out whether schools should move to 10am to 4pm, whether more alerting lessons should be at 9am (like PE), or whether we can help the students get better sleep in the evening ready for school at 9am.

      I’m still not sure which would be best, which is why we have to do the research! But what I do know from our 10 schools study is many teenagers (around 60% of our teens) are not getting the recommended amount of sleep. Sleep is so important for getting the best grades, being in the best health, and being in the best place psychologically so more research in the UK is definitely needed!

      I’m an Owl chronotype (evening preference) so I really struggled waking for school so I know I would have really liked to have been able to go to school a bit later in the day!!

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