Experts say teens should get at least nine hours of sleep each night, but only a small fraction of them do on “school nights”. Biological changes shift adolescent sleep cycles later, making it harder for teens to get to sleep early. For most adolescents, that means school mornings come far too early.

That’s a problem with serious consequences. Sleep deprivation makes it hard to focus, learn, and form memories. It can negatively affect mental and physical health and development and wreak havoc on moods. Overtired teens are also at higher risk of substance abuse, obesity, and injury.

High-school teachers and counsellors warn us that mental-health problems like anxiety and depression are afflicting today’s teens at higher rates than ever. We’re doing them no favours by forcing them to get up before their body clocks are ready to wake.

In the olden days, evenings were dark, long, and boring, and it was, I presume, easier to fall asleep earlier. Now we live in an LED-illuminated world, with bright screens filled with nonstop distractions, along with homework, part-time jobs and other demands on kids’ time.

Combine that with biological changes that affect teens’ sleep cycles, and it’s no wonder youth report high levels of daytime fatigue.

Consider impact of B.C. changing to year-round daylight saving time

As a teen, I loved it when the clocks changed in the fall and we got that extra hour in the morning. Or so it felt, for a while.  I hated the sound of my alarm, and I spent most school mornings in a drowsy daze. When I got to university, I was relieved to be able to schedule night classes and fewer early-morning lectures.

Now B.C.’s government is working to move the province to year-round daylight time instead of continuing to switch to standard time, from early November to early March. That means students won’t get that hour back in the fall and will be getting up an hour earlier than they do now, during the already-dark winter months. It makes me want to yawn and crawl under the covers just thinking about it.

Health experts have been warning that if B.C.’s going to move to year-round daylight time, as it appears we’re on track to, it should stick with standard time instead, citing our bodies’ need for morning light exposure. I imagine youth need that early morning light exposure as much as the rest of us, if not more.

Research supports later school start times

A 2018 study compared student sleep duration and school outcomes after the Seattle school district delayed school start times by almost an hour. It found students got more sleep with the later start time and the change was associated with increased attendance and a 4.5 percent increase in median grades.

At first glance, that’s a pretty compelling case to consider what the optimal time is for high school days to start. The catch is that schools in Seattle were starting at 7:50 a.m. prior to the change, which is much earlier than most B.C. schools. They switched the start time to 8:45 a.m., which is about when most B.C. public high schools start.  

Would changing start times to 9:30 a.m. or even 10 a.m. make a positive difference? I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone really does. There isn’t definitive research that I’m aware of that has determined the ideal school start time, nor the optimal length of the school day, or the best number of school days in a year. We’re just kind of doing it the way we’ve always done it, without research to guide us to the best decisions.

I think it’s time we tried to figure it out. As a school trustee, I wrestled with a lot of difficult decisions. I preferred to make decisions based on evidence but, unfortunately, there often wasn’t any, or at least not terribly credible.

It seems prudent to ensure we’re not making it harder for kids to learn and be as healthy as possible simply by demanding they be at school earlier than is good for them. It strikes me as downright irresponsible to stick with school start times that may be causing harm to some students. We also owe it to taxpayers to make sure that the dollars they provide for education are being spent as effectively as possible.

If school start times are having a negative effect on students’ ability to learn and causing—or even contributing to—mental or physical health problems, we need to know that and do something about it.

As we move to more flexible and personalized curriculum, it makes sense to provide more flexibility in terms of school times. That’s easier said than done, of course, as creating school timetables can be more complicated than you might think.

There are also contracts with teachers and support staff that would have to be considered, or possibly renegotiated, if hours or work change.

Some students may prefer to stick with current start times, especially those who participate in after-school sports and clubs or who have part-time jobs to get to or younger siblings to care for after school. It could be complicated in areas with school busing programs as well.

On the other hand, a change that has such important potential benefits—improved student achievement, attendance, and mental and physical health—shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s also important to consider how a move to year-round daylight time will affect students, and especially teens, whose sleep cycles are already out of sync with school start times.

Perhaps some school districts could partner with a university to run some studies by piloting a later start time in some schools (or portions of them), and comparing the outcomes over times.

Most importantly, students themselves need to be part of the discussion before any changes are considered. They’re the experts on what works for them and what doesn’t.

Could a simple time change help us get more bang for the billions we spend on educating kids in this province? Maybe, or maybe not. But it’s time we figured it out.