School start times: Manitoba students getting enough sleep

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This article was published 17/07/2010 (5569 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Are you dreading September because it means dragging your kids out of bed for school each morning and desperately trying to get them to bed each night?

Chill, mom and dad.

A Rhode Island researcher says Manitoba has the ideal school start times, and that most students starting classes at 9 a.m. will not only get the amount of sleep they need, but they’ll also awaken at the right time.

Dr. Judith Owens, a pediatrician in Providence and a professor of medicine at Brown University, recently published a research paper in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine on the benefits to students of starting classes half an hour later.

There are enormous benefits, Owens said in an interview: less drowsiness, not so moody, more alert, more likely to eat breakfast, less tardiness and absence.

The catch?

Most high schools in the United States start the day between 7 and 8 a.m., she says — by being behind, we’re way ahead.

Owens conducted her research by convincing her daughter’s school — a private high school for high-academic achievers, 90 per cent of whom board — to move the start of classes back from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

Owens acknowledged that the study was a very controlled group. "None of these kids had after-school jobs," she said.

But her data were similar to studies in public schools in Minnesota and Kentucky, and now she wants to conduct far more extensive studies.

"Virtually every statistical factor we looked at was significantly positive," Owens said. "They were going to bed earlier. That was an unexpected bonus."

Owens said that when parents wake their kids up before 8 a.m., that’s when they’re likely in their deepest sleep. "You’re asking them to wake up at a time their brain is least alert.

"There is an underlying biological shift in sleep and wake schedules. They need nine hours of sleep," she said. "Adolescents can’t go to sleep before 10 p.m., and more likely 11 p.m."

Told our starting times, Owens said that Manitoba students should be getting enough sleep and should be at their most alert when the morning announcements end — assuming they don’t have to get up for an hour-long rural bus ride or attend a pre-school practice.

"They should be able to sleep to 8 a.m. and get to school by 9 a.m.," she said. "It sounds like you’re doing the right thing there — keep it up."

Owens said that the Providence school she studied was starting late, by American standards.

"Many high schools start between 7 and 7:30 a.m. and are over by 2 p.m.," she said.

With a less advanced day care system, American parents want high schoolers to get home in time to watch younger siblings. Many students have afternoon jobs, varsity coaches want student-athletes available by mid-afternoon, and teachers resist any change in long-established schedules, she said.

University of Manitoba dean of education John Wiens said there haven’t been studies done here, but he wasn’t surprised by what Owens learned.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca