Every kid says it, school starts too early. Teenagers are just told to go to bed earlier, or to stay off their phones then they would be prepared for the next school day.

Parents and adults alike come back with that kids are too tired in school because of late night time on their phones. Phones though, are always not why kids can’t seem to be up and ready in the morning for school.

Melatonin is a natural hormone that is released in the body to help people sleep, and isn’t released in the majority of teens until 1 A.M. Along with not being able to fall asleep until late at night, there is also the fact that teenagers need more sleep than adults. Adults need an average seven to nine hours of sleep a night while teenagers need 9 ½ hours of sleep each night.

Still, kids should be able to at least try to get a good night sleep? Wrong. Most teenagers are given homework for at least one of their classes each night, then are expected to study all of their courses, stay active in the community, go to bed at a decent time, eat balanced meals, and have a social life. There just isn’t enough time in a day to do all of those things once school is over.

Many people question why we should change the start time of school when it’s been roughly the same since the start of American schooling. They do not think about how of the many of the things we’ve changed in past centuries in our country, the school has not been one of them.

School times need to be pushed back, many schools who have done it reported better grades out of their students. If the school day starts later, students would get out of school later yes, but they would be less stressed and be able to get more sleep.

To recap, the current start time for American schools is too early and is hurting the students. If we were to delay the start time, there would be many positives changes that we would not be able to overlook.