Late or Early Start?

A very hot topic that has been talked about throughout various number of school years is the debate whether students would prefer to be able to sleep in and start school later, or to have to get up earlier in the morning but leave more time for themselves after school hours.  

Waking up early in the morning is a terrible and discouraging feeling after a long night of endless homework and studying.  Then, to have to go to school while it is still dark outside and struggle to stay awake in your first couple periods. The school week can be a very long and tiring couple of days for students. The most important thing for a stressed child is to obtain a healthy sleep schedule, which consists of at least 8 hours of sleep every night. It is difficult to accomplish this while receiving hours of homework from teachers each night, being expected to participate in clubs, sports, and other extracurriculars, while still getting to bed at a decent time. Students need to start prioritizing their mental and physical health over academic validation, which is the main reason that their sleeping schedules become so unhealthy. 

 However, on the flip side, starting school later in the morning would give students that extra couple minutes of sleep which could count for a lot. This allows students to stay up later to finish homework before bed. Also, if the student preferred, they could wake up and do homework before school without having to get up at the crack of dawn. Although this does result in less free time after school, many kids are able to better function with a more consistent sleeping schedule, therefore allowing a later start to school could be beneficial for many reasons, all which account for the well- being of the students.