There is nothing a high school student dreads more than waking up at the literal crack of dawn to start a school day. There has been loads of research about the psychological effects on a teenager waking up so early, and the facts are very telling.

According to the CDC, teens biologically need 8-9 hours of sleep to avoid being overweight, not getting enough physical activity, suffering from depressive symptoms, abusing illegal substances, and performing badly in school. It is scientifically proven that teenagers are waking up way too early to function to the best of their ability and that the time that elementary school children are waking up should be the time high schoolers are waking up and vice-versa. But, with everything good in life it has some opposition.

When school starts later, obviously it pushes everything like sports back with it. Sports like field hockey, soccer, and other fall sports would need to install stadium lights because of the sun setting so early during the season. Among many other positives and negatives, all in all, pushing back school has a lot of effects on a multitude of things. Under is a list of pros and cons about a later school start time.

Pros:

• Teens are emotionally happier when they wake up later
• There are proven psychological downfalls of an early wake up time
• Students won’t have to drink so much caffeine
• Less health risks related to less sleep
• Students would get better grades because they have more time to do homework which leads to better grades
• There would be a lesser amount of students sleeping in class because they would get all the sleep they need during the night

Cons:

• Teens are more sluggish during school hours
• They do not get the adequate amount of sleep
• Academics will suffer
• Less student participation in class
• Students will have to rely on unhealthy drinks like Red Bull, Monster, Coffee
• Sports would have to put up money to put in stadium lights because of the sun going down
• Students are more likely to be overweight because they sleep