American Scientist

To the Editors:

I enjoyed the video Q&A in which managing editor Fenella Saunders interviewed sleep researcher June Pilcher of Clemson University. I wondered: Are decisions to delay school start times supported by sleep research?

Lynn Elwell
Durham, NC

Dr. Pilcher responds:

Sleep scientists have been advocating for later school start times, especially for high school students, for at least 10 to 20 years. As children progress through adolescence, their internal rhythm encouraging them to sleep at night and be awake during the day shifts to later in the day. That means that they want to stay up even later and then, of course, get up later in the morning. Early high school start times will inevitably bring about chronic sleep loss in many teenagers. Most teenagers will stay up later (especially in our society) and thus sleep less in an effort to get up early enough to go to school. A relatively easy solution is to delay the school start time for high schools. Even an hour delay would have a positive effect on the students’ alertness, focus, and performance or learning.