Imagine having to take a test, eyes barely open, still half asleep.

Many Hershey High School students can relate. As a result of sleepiness, teens are mentally and physically unprepared for the long school day ahead. The school starting time needs to be pushed back for teens to perform better academically and to financially benefit the school districts.

Due to insufficient sleep, teen students are not working to their fullest capacity. Most students coming into school are too tired to function. They are not able to fully concentrate the first few periods of the day.

According to the Sleep Foundation, “15% reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights,” and “…teens need to get 8-10 hours of sleep per night.” No wonder many kids can not focus during the school day. Few are getting just the minimum amount of sleep needed.

Consequently teens are not working to their fullest academic potential.

Teens are proven to perform better in testing with a later school start time. Research by the NYU Department of Psychiatry found, “…earlier bedtimes, more total sleep, and later rise times are associated with superior academic performance and higher grades.” Before teenage years it is normal to fall asleep around 9:00 pm; teens go through a biological shift causing them to go to bed and wake up two hours later. The only other solution to becoming more rested is to wake up later since teens can not change their biological time clock. Teens do not usually wake up naturally until 7-9 am.

Students are not the only ones that would benefit from a later start time. The school districts have a lot to gain as well.

In some states public schools get paid for their rankings based on tests. Later start times would decrease absences. For example, in the Idaho Bonneville County school, “…absences dropped 15%…” once the school start time was shifted back, according to the LA Times. With this increase in attendance test scores went up dramatically shown when, “…significant increases in grade point average in all 1st-period core courses for all semesters in all grades…” in Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming, with a start time of 8:55 a.m. By increasing the attendance the test scores would go up causing the school ranking to improve. Therefore, the later the start time means the higher the attendance, which leads to higher funds for the school district to improve.

To see a change in students grades and financial improvement in the school district, the starting time needs to be pushed back. In order for this to be changed, people need to talk about this issue. Some options include contacting Hershey High School at (717)531-2244 to tell administrators to push back the start time to 9am. A lot of schools have made this change already. Hopefully the United States and world will continue to make this change to benefit students as well as school districts.