Adolescent sleep and later school start times

Early school bell times incompatible with adolescent sleep needs and patterns are a major contributor to widespread adolescent sleep insufficiency. Biological delay in sleep onset and social pressures during puberty, combined with the need to arise early on weekdays, make obtaining adequate and optimally timed sleep difficult for most adolescents, potentially impacting physical and emotional wellbeing, safety, and academic performance. Accumulating studies demonstrate that delaying school start times can effectively counter chronic insufficient sleep in adolescents, as well as enhance health, safety, and school success. That many secondary schools continue requiring attendance at times incompatible with healthy sleep suggests that empirical data have played a smaller role in influencing school hours than social and political factors. Overcoming the fear of change, failure of imagination, and ignorance about sleep currently blocking policy changes will require reframing school start times as a public health issue by shifting social norms about sleep.