It’s the start of the school year and already the energy levels have shifted in my household.
I have volunteered with grieving adolescents in several nonprofit groups in our valley the past 15 years. Every time we meet for a group, we do a check in to see how they are feeling. The No. 1 response we hear is always “tired” and then we probe a little to see how they are doing in addition to being tired.
Teens are incredible. They are smart, creative, independent, thoughtful and struggling to have enough energy for all the demands of school, work and extracurriculars.
There is a lot of chatter in our collective societal and political discussions about teens and mental health right now. Much of the research regarding teens and sleep points to and suggests later school start times.
Currently our students’ schedules are based on a structure created to match a white, early-bird-gets-the-worm corporate America.
In adolescence teens’ biological clocks shift and keep them up later at night. Lack of sleep can be linked to depression, anxiety, and lack of emotional regulation. There are many factors at play in deciding start times for schools. Could we start with each district offering one public high school and one public middle school with a true late start to give struggling adolescents an option? It seems that educational institutions could set the precedent for following research. Adjusting the start time of high school and middle school may make all the difference for some individuals’ mental health.
Elizabeth Seeley, Sandy