Dear Future President,

The human brain is not fully awake until 10 in the morning but yet almost every school in the country starts school around 7 in the morning, many teenagers can agree to school starting later because of the lack of sleep teenagers get, there’s a bunch of different reasons to why people should agree to later start times for school, from personal experiences and other different reasons, here is why I think school times should start later.

My first reason is that teenagers and middle schoolers are failing classes because of the lack of sleep they get, a lot of students have extra curricular activities right after school and don’t get home until very late, some don’t even have time to do their homework, so they rush and end up going to bed so that they’re not tired in the morning, then end up falling behind and possibly failing. “Teenagers spend hours listening to teachers and taking tests, then run off to after school practices and come home to be faced with even more work” (says Alina Saminsky) during the season I play lacrosse right after school, don’t get home until late and don’t have enough time to do my homework because I need to go to bed for school and wake up early for another school day. Falling behind in classes and getting behind on school work is really easy for me and anybody who plays sports right after school and doesn’t get home until late

My second is is that when teenagers or anybody get lack of sleep, that it can affect their moods, memory, and their attention in school this happens because you don’t get the recommended amount of sleep that you’re supposed to get, so you end up getting into a bad mood. Your brain isn’t fully working plus you’re so tired in the middle of class that you’re trying to focus and not fall asleep in class and trying to stay awake, from my personal experiences on school nights i’ve stayed up late doing homework and I have to wake up at 5 in the morning for school then leave by 6:30am. Ive stayed up and my mood swings and my focus performance are not good at all because i’m running off a couple hours of sleep. “Studies have shown that even partial sleep deprivation has a significant effect on mood. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that subjects who were limited to only 4.5 hours of sleep a night for one week reported feeling more stressed, angry, sad, and mentally exhausted. When the subjects resumed normal sleep, they reported a dramatic improvement in mood” this proves that getting the right amount of sleep before school can completely change your mood and attitude.

My final reason is sleep is really important for your body and brain. “If you get the amount of sleep you’re supposed to get your mental and physical health plus your academic performance will be improved” (says Kat Sieniuc) teens need between 9-10 hours of sleep every night. teenagers who get more sleep benefits your mood and feeling more capable of managing your school work/focus. If you aren’t getting the right amount of sleep you can start to slack off and not get things done in school, you’ll be sleeping after school, taking naps and when you’re supposed to be getting your homework done.

In the end, school should have later start times because it would benefit you for so many reasons, the most important being that your academic performance will be better, because you’re getting the right amount of sleep every night, and you won’t be failing your classes or falling behind on school work. Plus getting the right amount of sleep you’ll feel better at school and focusing better on your work.