When I was in grade school and high school I always wanted to stay up later and sleep later than school schedules allowed. My mind was always better later in the day and in the evening. Well, a new study vindicates by feeling at the time that school was not set up for my circadian cycle. Kids are being forced wake up and get going about 2 hours too early.
Current high school start times deprive adolescents of sleep and force students to perform academically in the early morning, a time of day when they are at their worst, according to a study in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Results from high school senior sleep/wake diaries kept for the study also showed that adolescents lost as much as two hours of sleep per night during the school week, but weekend sleep times during the school year were similar to those in summer.
Advanced placement biology students were recruited for the study. So the kids do not sound like they were slackers.
The study was a collaborative project involving researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine and the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology at Northwestern University and faculty, students and parents from Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Ill. The students were advanced placement biology students who helped conduct the study and analyze the collected data.
Martha Hansen, advanced placement biology teacher and current science department chair at Evanston Township High School, headed the project in collaboration with Margarita L. Dubocovich, professor of molecular pharmacology and biological chemistry and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Feinberg; and Phyllis C. Zee, M.D., professor of neurology, Feinberg.
The study assessed the impact of sleep loss after the start of school on cognitive performance and mood and examined the relationship of weekday to weekend sleep in adolescents.
The study also showed that
exposure to bright light in the morning did not modify students' sleep-wake cycle or improve daytime performance during weekdays probably because of their strict school schedule. All students performed better in the afternoon than in the morning.
Students in early morning classes reported being wearier, less alert and having to expend greater effort. Potential solutions to this problem could be solved by changing school start times and by giving standardized tests later in the day, the authors suggested.For example, classes at Evanston Township High School start at 8:05 a.m. and run until 3:35 p.m. – one of the longest school days in Illinois. Many high schools in the country have start times of 7:15 or 7:30 a.m. In addition, almost all standardized tests in high school begin at 8 a.m.
Since this is when adolescents show their poorest performance levels, a change is clearly needed and would be relatively easy to negotiate, the researchers suggest.
Technology should be used to allow kids to adjust their learning schedules to their body's circadian rhythms. The use of pre-recorded high quality and high resolution lectures would allow kids to watch lectures on difficult subjects when their minds feel keen enough to handle difficult material. Our current regimented method of marching kids through a series of fixed time length classes strikes me as a hold-over from the factory era. Lecture delivery could be done electronically at any time of the day or night. A kid who has a hankering to just listen to hours of biology on one day and hours of history on another day ought to be able to do that as long as all the needed material is viewed. Or if the kid wants to watch physics lectures only after 9 PM then make it easy to do so.
I can even picture electronic methods to detect whether each kid paid attention to n hours of biology lectures and m hours of calculus lectures. Biometric scanning equipment attached to a device that plays lecture videos could track whether each kid has watched each lecture. Or kids could have to set for automatically delivered tests to monitor their progress.
Kids could even win greater flexibility in the use of their time by meeting testing goals. A kid who manage to, say, test as being a month ahead of schedule could be allowed to spend more hours listening to music, watching movies, playing video games, or other activities. We should make education less like a planned regimented socialist economy and give kids ways to earn the ability to exercise greater control of their time. I bet many kids would learn more rapdily and also be happier about learning.
By Randall Parker at 2005 June 06 12:28 PM Brain Sleep | TrackBackI think the problem may be that by adjusting teenagers schedules this way, it leaves them woefully unperpared for the real world once they move on. Unless they adjust this for college as well (unlikely), they would be doing these kids a disservice by handicapping them from the reality of the regular 8-5 (7?) workday. I can't choose to do part of my job at 7PM that day instead of during the regular work day, and instilling them with the idea that everything is adjustable would be detrimental.
Tman,
I've worked in a number of environments where engineers and computer programmers could come to work at 9 or 10 AM.
Also, adjusting their schedules makes them more productive. Their time clocks may change when they age. But forcing them to get up early will not cause their time clocks to shift. As the study showed, they just function poorly in a sleep-deprived state.
I've seen similar studies before, and all make eminent good sense.
As for Tman's comments, might I add that once at college, one does indeed have much more freedom to choose one's own schedule? I certainly avoided all classes that began before 10 am from my sophomore year on. And regarding postgraduation schedules, it may be that a schedule that is bad for learning might not be so bad for working. And it is also likely that one's rhythms change as one ages.
my elementary school teacher told me this back in the 1980s. the info has been around for a while...but no movement, no change.
Home Educators here enjoying a sort of "told you so" moment! We get up when we please, use the internet and learn when we feel most ready. Who needs schools!
Also re criticism of not being in the real world, there is that company in Brazil (I cannot immediately recall the name of the C.O) which increased its productivity six-fold, by letting the workers choose their work hours and by providing hammocks to which workers could retire as they felt the need. This was predicated, of course, upon having motivated workers, but this issue of chicken and egg seems pretty difficult to sort out here.
This all makes sense except when it comes to the social aspect of school. Without a regular schedule, how do you fit in more fun classes like orchestra and extracurricular activities? Or would you relegate those to the morning instead when the brain is less ready for more intensive work. Scheduling was a huge hassle for me in high school because I had to fit in high school classes with my community college and university classes. My day usually started at 7 a.m. with jazz band and ended past 5 after my last class at UC Berkeley.
And one more thing, the schedules of American kids don't even compare to the long long days of kids in Asia which typically include cram schools and tutoring sessions after long school days. Not to say that it is ideal, but they are certainly better prepared academically than kids in the U.S.
Hi Randall
This is completely stupid. Put the kids to bed earlier and they will wake up early and do fine in school. The problem is that parents let their kids stay up too late on the weekend and it messes them up.
No, it's not stupid. It's the way teenagers are built. The idea of letting students set their own schedules, using modern technology, is also excellent. Sadly, it's doubtful that schools will actually act on the evidence and make any changes. The current schedules are remnants of America's agricultural past.
Lei; we all see how many important contributions all those "academically well prepared" students educated in Asia make to culture, science, math, and technology. Since Asia produces far more technical PhDs, and the US produces far more innovation, I'm not inclined to laud Asia's education, Especially if they have an IQ advantage.
All; as is this is the worst (or 100th worst) thing about US schools. Once again, I judge by the fruits. Which impresses more in per capita innovation US circa 1880 (no compulsory schooling except in Massachusets) or US today.
There can be a million studies, but the powers dictating US education don't WANT to improve.
Lei:
Your comment about asian school + cram school makes me wonder: what if these asian students slept in, skipped all morning & early afternoon classes (or did physical exercies or the like), studied in the late afternoon and then went to cram school (skipping the standard issue school entirely)? This research makes me wonder if they wouldn't be as well off as the rest of the students, and less stressed.
Maybe the true advantage of asian schooling practices isn't the rigor of the standard schooling, but the cram schools being held in mental peak hours?
Randall,
That would be great, except the majority of us are not engineers and computer programmers. The majority of us work in jobs that unfortunately require us to be at work on average at around 8:00 am. So how do we adjust the reality for the rest of us?
Unless you plan on having everyone become engineers and computer programmers (not that there's anything WRONG with that, per se.)
I stand by my point that one part of life many of us learn early on is that sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do, like get up on time to go to work. It may be true that teenagers perform better when they are more awake, but that doesn't change the reality that the majority of them will have to eventually learn to perform at early hours if they want to get a decent job. Denying them this reality doesn't help them at all.
I think it would be good to have the club, band, sports activites, and other extracurricular activities in the morning. They're more interesting anyway and thus more likely to stimulate and wake you up in preparation for learning later in the day.
Tman, because what students learn forms the basis for what they'll need to do their jobs later in life, wouldn't it be better to learn it well and worry about setting a work sleep schedule later? Do you also advocate forcing pre-schoolaged children to stay awake 16 hours a day because some day they'll only need 8 hours of sleep? As David pointed out, students are perfectly capable of scheduling late classes in college (and do at every chance they get), yet plenty of college graduates who have to be at work at 8am (unlike us lucky-duck engineers :)) seem to do just fine.
And Michael H., spoken like someone who has never had stubborn, persistent insomnia.
SpakKadi,
Exactly right. Some of these kids will experience shifts in their circadian rhythms when they get older and will then be able to get up early more easily. Why make them get up while they are younger? I don't buy the "this will build character or teach discipline" theory.
Seems to me we have an overriding interest in seeing too it that they learn as much as possible. Whole career paths will be closed off if they learn less in adolescence. That loss seems much greater than any gain from teaching them to fight their natural body clock and walk around dull and sleepy.
Tman,
Quite a few other occupations have unconventional time shifts. I can tell you from personal experience that many telephone operators have shfits that start at noon, 1 PM, or 2 PM. Lots of wait help in restaurants and bars go to work at 11 AM or 12 noon or 5 PM or later. Nurses work all kinds of shifts. A nurse who wants to start work at 6 PM will find many eager employers.
My guess is that the fraction of workers doing hours other than 8 to 5 has been rising for decades and continues to rise. The percentage of people working shifts in factories has plummeted. The hours for stores and even banks have become much broader. Service industries serve people when they want to be served. Late risers can wait on other late risers. Though I'd welcome evidence disproving that guess.
Michael Vassar - Neither the Asian nor the American education system is perfect. My point was that kids in Asia do well despite the long hours and that American kids could perhaps do just as well if they didn't have so many people making excuses for them. It's not just school that makes Asians dull and less innovative (although that's a gross generalization), it's the culture too.
Intrope - The joke is that cram schools function more as a place for kids to hang around than study. Most kids like to go because their friends go. I'm not really sure how much they learn. In the end, standard school is where most of the academics are dictated and learned. Most of my fellow parents in Singapore and Taiwan would rather their kids receive private tuition at home.
I think all of us would agree that kids deserve more individual attention that most traditional schools can offer them. For the most tenacious, personalized schedules can be designed (just as I did when I was in high school). My fear is that kids without strong parental support and motivation will lose out if schools switched to self-study or home study.
Teenagers need a lot of sleep, perhaps more than preteens. Also, their circadian clocks get shifted temporarily toward being a night person -- presumably for sexual reasons.
There is another group of youngsters who must rise early. Reveille in boot camp used to be 0500 hours. I was always of the opinion that this was a deliberate attempt to disorient and confuse. Seems that I was right.
Lei:
Thanks for the info. Never having been to any asian nation, I didn't know that.
Still, it does make me wonder if night school for teens might be more effective than the current system?
The mistake here is assuming school is primarily meant to educate children.
School takes children so the workers can go to the mill, the field or the factory.
Find a way to start _work_ half an hour later than _school_ and this might lead to some improvement.
I think that Steve Sailor made a very important point. The reason why these teenagers are not getting enough sleep is that they stay up late having sex. Maybe if we were stricter and put our teenagers to sleep at 9 P.M. then not only would they get plenty of sleep but also we wouldn't have to worry about being grandparents before our time.
Michael H.,
No, Steve didn't say these teens are staying up late having sex. Most aren't. He's probably implying that natural selection selected for teens to stay up later so that they could have sex.
For our arboreal ancestors, early rising would have been of no particular advantage. If you live in a tree, getting up in the dark and moving about would have increased your chances of falling and becoming leopard bait.As we devolved to h. subsapiens, selection would have favored the adult who could most utilize daylight, but would have put no darwinian pressure on the non hunter/gathering juvenile form.
LDon,
It might have made sense for adolescents to stay up and pull guard duty or for elders to wake up in the middle of the night and look to see if predators are nearby.
That would be nice to sleep in because i always fall a sleep in class/
Some people here said it was stupid and things like: put your kids to bed early and they will wake up early. Well I don't think this is true because, not all kids can wake up early if you put them to bed early. Although I am, thirteen years old right now I have to say that these kinds of methods just doesn't always work out as planned. Also if you putted them in bed by 8pm or so, it's not like they will fall asleep. For me, if I was sleeping at 8 then I would just be lying in my bed doing nothing because I can't sleep.
I honestly believe sleep deprivation has a major impact on students' performances. If you're schedule is going to bed later and getting up later then you're going to have a difficult time breaking it. You cannot force yourself to sleep without taking some kind of medication, and then expect to get up early since you "went to bed" early. High schools should start later so academic levels can improve, so students can perform at their ultimate best. As far as future jobs go, many students will have to adjust to waking up earlier, but if it's really a problem I'm sure they can make arrangements. You're basically wasting your time in the morning by sitting in a lecture, not comprehending or learning anything because you're too tired. It's just against a teenager's natural schedule, hopefully it'll change a bit once they're adults, but for the time being they might as well just give the teenager's what they need.
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