Adolescents need about nine hours of sleep a night, according to Abrams, a pediatrician for 50 years, and other experts.
SOUTH HADLEY – For years, studies have suggested that high schools should start their classes at a later time because of the changing “sleep-wake” cycles of adolescents.
Now advocates of a later school day have another ally.
Robert M. Abrams, recently elected to the South Hadley School Committee, raised the issue at a “Candidates’ Night” forum, and he raised it again when the committee met last week.
South Hadley High School opens for business at 7:25 a.m.
Not everyone agrees that a later starting time would help teens achieve more, or even that sleep deprivation is a big deal.
What gives Abrams a special claim to attention is that he has been a pediatrician for 50 years, and also serves as a physician for the Holyoke Schools.
He told listeners at the forum that he’s had high school students faint while he was administering flu shots – because they hadn’t been able to wake up early enough for breakfast.
The topic of delayed start times had been on the School Committee’s agenda only weeks earlier, with South Hadley Schools Superintendent Gus Sayer providing literature for the committee.
Abrams also came armed with articles on the pitfalls of chronic sleep deprivation and the benefits of a delayed start.
Much of the research is based on a four-year, large-scale study conducted at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
According to the articles, when teens got enough sleep, the results included an increase in attendance and motivation, fewer disciplinary problems, less tardiness, less depression and a “calmness” in the halls and cafeteria.
Grades did not rise dramatically, but researchers said those are not necessarily a reliable measure of well-being.
Adolescents need about nine hours of sleep a night, according to Abrams and other experts. Unfortunately, going to bed earlier may not solve the problem, as teens are programmed by their biological clocks not only to wake up later but to fall asleep later.
Even supporters are aware of the disadvantages of delaying the start of the school day: More expense for buses, loss of after-school jobs, disruption of after-school athletic and other extracurricular activities, family commitments.
But nature may outweigh any of these arguments.
The “sleep shift” is not something adolescents learn from the culture, wrote Kyle Wahlstrom in the NASSP (National Association of Secondary School Principals) Bulletin in 2002. “It is instead a phenomenon of human development.”