High school students in Leander ISD wake up exhausted, missing crucial hours of sleep and not feeling at their best physical and mental capabilities, primarily due to how early the school day starts.

The school day should start at 9:30 a.m.

Teenagers in high school are under-rested. According to an article by the University of Michigan Medicine, teenagers need roughly 10 hours of sleep per night in order to perform at their best ability. Students that do not get the recommended amount of sleep experience chronic sleep debt, where they can experience exhaustion in the classroom, depression and even obesity.

Students who sleep more tend to have less tardiness and better academic performance. According to a study done by the University of Washington, students who experienced the later start times had an extra 34 minutes of sleep, their grades were up 4.5% from when the school started at its original start time and tardiness during first period classes was down as well. For example, a student could wake up rested, eat a good breakfast and make it to the first period on time, all things that could potentially not be fulfilled if the school day started earlier.

Getting more sleep will help benefit student’s mental and physical health.

In an article by the University of Pittsburgh, they say that the adolescent stage is an inflection point towards mental health struggles in the adult world, and getting more sleep is a strategy towards avoiding these struggles. For example, having more rest will allow a student to prepare for an upcoming exam and also improve mood and lower stress because of the sleep the student had. 

While those who oppose the later start time note after-school jobs and activities that could change because of the start time, according to an article by the American Psychological Association, districts that have faced this problem are up to the task of fixing it, and the switch to a later start time doesn’t have a huge effect on extracurriculars or after-school jobs.

A simple solution to this problem is to move the high school start times in LISD to 9:30 a.m. to give students more time to sleep and prepare for the upcoming day.

Leander ISD should push the high school start times to 9:30 a.m.