In Seattle, kids are made sure to get enough sleep. Research from the University of Washington shows that getting at least an hour more of sleep can benefit your school life tremendously. In an article by NPR titled “Sleepless no more in Seattle – Later school start time pays off for teens,” the reporter explains that increasing scores and fewer absences can occur by a simple hour more of sleep.

Jonathan Alder High School students answered a survey, and, out of 126 people, half of the students would rather start school around 8:30 am and go until 3:30 pm. The least popular answer was 6:30 am to 1:30 pm. Shockingly, many people responded that they would start school at 5:30 in the morning and go until 12:30 in the afternoon.

Students explain why they would rather start school at the time they picked:

Aubrey Wright says, “Because it gives students the opportunity to be more rested and be able to fully apply themselves. With all of the extracurricular and sports and homework, many teenagers are overworked and waking up at 6 am does not help them in anyway with all of those things.”  

Another survey that was sent out asked students if they do better in the morning or the afternoon. Out of 48 responses, 61.7% of people do better in the afternoon than in the morning. More than 65% of people would prefer to take tests in the afternoon rather than the morning.

Not getting enough sleep at night can really affect your academic performance.

 According to The Odyssey Online, There are many reasons you could be falling asleep in class such as,“ …not getting enough sleep at night, eating a filling meal before class, or poor ventilation…”

Now poor ventilation is not part of your sleeping schedule, but getting a full breakfast and not getting enough sleep is. If you wake up too early, you might forget to eat breakfast.  If you sleep in too late, you may not have time to eat breakfast. Not eating breakfast can take your mind off of what you’re supposed to be learning and get you off task.

The American Pediatricians just say an hour more of sleep can have a big impact.