Chinapat Prachantasen (Kiiki)

June 6, 2019
English 10
Should High School Start Later?
Talking about school start time in these days, should the high school start that early? Will
not adolescent feel tired or stressed from school works? Nowadays, there are various high
schools in Thailand either a government or international school. As you already knew all parents
want their child to learn at well-known in academic school, but they did not know that their
children are having a hard time about school start time. Most of the schools in Thailand start too
early from what it should be. According to high school in America (Neighmond P., 2018), they
had experimented about adolescent hygiene by postponing the school start time to 8 a.m. or later.
However, an adolescent who wakes up later has more concentration in class and increases in
their grade as well. Thus, every high school in Thailand should start at 8 a.m. or later, because it
will provide more time for students to sleep, and later start time increase students academic
performance as well.
One study done by npr.org shows that later school start time provides more time for the
adolescent to getting enough sleep. As the research reports, “there is evidence grows that chronic
sleep deprivation puts teens at risk for physical and mental health problems.” From this research,
many people start to think that if they move the high school start time from its original time to be
8 a.m. or later will the adolescent get better hygiene basic. According to Álex de la Iglesia, when
children reach puberty their biological clock change they will go to bed later than adults or kids.
Many people argue that school later start time should not be approved because it will provide
extra times for adolescent to stay up later at night. But these thoughts were wrong, most of them
still slept at the same time they used when they have a normal start time. In addition, the school
later start time has benefits for students who had core subjects for the first class too. The
evidence from the experiment in America’s high school proves that “students got 34 minutes
more sleep on average with the later school start time. This boosted their total nightly sleep from
6 hours and 50 minutes to 7 hours and 24 minutes.” This can be trusted because of the statistic
from the experiment, the minutes counted right after adolescent come to sleep (“Later School
Start Times: Benefits & Cons - National Sleep Foundation,” n.d.). As teenagers grow up and
reach puberty their sleep time changed, the high school in Thailand should understand this point
and provide more time for them to stay in bed. Getting enough sleep will improve adolescent
hygiene basics. Alike America’s high school, Thailand should move the school start time out to
provide extra time for students to sleep.
Another benefit that gets from a later start is increasing in academic performance.
Research from washington.edu supports the claim that later start time increases students
academic performance. According to the study, “Final grades were 4.5 percent higher for
students who took the class after school start times were pushed back compared with students
who took the class when school started earlier.” Most of the time, the student who got enough
sleep will not be sleepy in the class and will be more concentrated on the topics that are learning.
Having enough sleep keeps adolescent away from using caffeine or tobacco product, from the
survey some of the student drink coffee to keep them awake during the study. This may lead to a
bad habit and it doesn’t help the student to be more concentrated in the class, in opposite they
may get addicted instead. There were other studies from Universities of Minnesota, researchers
observed 9,395 students from many high schools and they chose 8 - 8.55 a.m. to be the start time
for school (“learning-liftoff-staff”, 2019). In addition, the researcher found that when the school
shifted start time out the students still go to bed the same time they usually do but they will get
more time to sleep. Later start time also decreases the rate of tardiness and absence. “It was also
found that when start times were 8:55 AM grade point averages improved in all first-period core
courses across all semesters in all grades. Overall, it was concluded that the later the start, the
greater the academic benefits.” These numbers support the argument that high school in Thailand
should move the school start time to 8 a.m. or later in order for benefit of students
The main argument that the research supports is that the school should starts at 8 a.m. or
later, it can be said that not getting enough sleep caused many disadvantages to our body
especially in teens. As the result, the research shows that adolescent needs to get an average
sleep of 8-9 hours a night because they are growing up, sleep deprivation can harm their
biological clock and other functions of the body. Research still needs to be done in the high
school that teens went to bed late, to see that will later start helps them to get more sleep time or
provide them more time to stay at night. Hi Therefore, the high school in Thailand should start
later due to the statistics that have shown in the experiments of America's teens.
 References

CDC. (2019, February 21). Schools Start Too Early. Retrieved June 5, 2019, from Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention website:
https://www.cdc.gov/features/school-start-times/index.html
Later School Start Times: Benefits & Cons - National Sleep Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved June 5,
2019, from ​https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/backgrounder-later-school-start-times
learning-liftoff-staff. (2019, March 15). Later School Start Times May Improve Academic
Performance - Learning Liftoff. Retrieved June 5, 2019, from Learning Liftoff website:
https://www.learningliftoff.com/later-school-start-times-may-improve-academic-performan
ce/
Neighmond, P. (2018, December 12). Sleepless No More In Seattle — Later School Start Time
Pays Off For Teens. Retrieved June 5, 2019, from NPR.org website:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/12/676118782/sleepless-no-more-in-seat
tle-later-school-start-time-pays-off-for-teens
Urton, J. (n.d.). Teens get more sleep, show improved grades and attendance with later school
start time, researchers find. Retrieved June 5, 2019, from UW News website:
https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/12/12/high-school-start-times-study/
What to Tell Your Teen About the Benefits of Getting Good Grades. (n.d.). Retrieved June 5,
2019, from Verywell Family website:
https://www.verywellfamily.com/benefits-of-getting-good-grades-in-high-school-4161164