Dear future President,

I am a student at Mead High, our school starts at 7:15. So I wake up at 6:00 a.m. I only get 6-7 hours of sleep each night. I have been waking up this early for my whole high school career of 3 years. It has taken a toll on my performance in school and my perspective on life. I perform best when I have at least the recommended 8 hours of sleep each night. Schools need to be required to push back school start times so our youth can sleep, so they can perform to their best and be the healthiest form of themselves.

Later school start times is imperative to our nation's youth. High school students are not getting the amount of sleep they need due to school starting early. We need to push back school start times, so that the times match up with teens biological wake up times. This will improve their work and overall mental health. High schoolers are suffering from depression and many other health issues because of early school start times. The new president has the duty to help our generation to let them get their sleep. At my school students are pushed harder than ever so we have a head start, this means a lot more homework; this is cutting into their sleep. High school students need at least 8 hours of sleep, teens biological clock says that they should not go to bed before 11 pm. If students go to bed any earlier they are fighting their biological clock and will not get a good night's sleep. So if students are getting up to go to school at 5 or 6 they are not getting enough sleep to fully function.

With getting up so early to go to school, it causes students have irregular sleeping patterns that can cause problems in their life like “narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome or sleep apnea.” Sleep is an important part of life it keeps us alert during the day and functioning to our fullest, 100,000 car accidents are caused by sleepiness. This is not good news for our teen nation, who are new and inexperienced drivers, and sleep deprived from early school start times. For the safety of youth in the nation we need to push back the times that school start back to coordinate with their biological sleep patterns. If we do not push back the times our teens will suffer for the rest of their lives, struggling with sleep problems because of our schools.

School start times is a big issue in our youth's lives. Not getting enough sleep and irregular sleeping habits can cause lifetime problems. It is our government's duty to protect our youth and their health. This issue is a big problem in my life and all of my peers live. I have seen the effects of early school start times and I hope that our future president cares about our youth and their sleep.

Sincerely

Shaina D.

Work Cited

-"Teens and Sleep." - National Sleep Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.