A majority of high school students across the Philippines do not receive a sufficient amount of

sleep. Since there is a new system in public schools, class starts earlier than 7:00 am. Students
often do not acquire the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep due to a natural and biological
tendency for teenagers to fall asleep at later times. Contrary to logical thinking, most school
systems fail to recognize the destructive effects of such lack of sleep and implement a learning
schedule in direct opposition to the mental and physical needs of the student body. Without the
dramatic shift nationwide of school start times and the crucial support of the public in order to
create a vital change, high school students will continue to be at a high risk of depression, fatigue,
and stress, all aspects of which plague the nation’s education system and leads to an askew
societal mentality which values production more than health and happiness. Research
supporting the positive effects of earlier start times is nonexistent and stems from possible
logistical issues that may arise from a shift of schedule and not the health effects of such a
systematic implementation. The early school day start enforced by the greater part of high
schools is detrimental to the education and health of students and substantially contrasts with
scientific data as it limits students’ ability to retain and process information, damages biological
sleep cycles, leads to increased likelihood for chronic stress and depression, and creates a
negative learning atmosphere.

Studies by the University of Minnesota, Brown University, and the Children’s National Medical
Center found school start times at “developmentally appropriate hours” betters the health and
academic performance of students and shows a more appropriate duration of sleep. Although
most schools in the United States do not start after 8:30 am., analysis of tardiness and student
performance in earlier classes when compared to later times can give researchers a greater
understanding of the benefits of shifting the schedule. In a study of public high schools in
Chicago, researchers found an increase in absences and a decrease in academic performance
when analysis compared earlier class times to classes later in the day. Imagine if the classes at
the end of the day, ones in which attendance and test scores skyrocketed, were the initial classes
in a school’s schedule. Once again, the Pediatrics Academy found, “studies comparing high
schools with start times as little as thirty minutes earlier versus those with later start times
demonstrate such adverse consequences as shorter sleep duration, increased sleepiness,
difficulty concentrating, behavior problems, and absenteeism”.
Since 2007, the CDC annually finds that only one out of three high school students sleep eight
hours or more during the week, a horrifying statistic when one realizes the chronic sleep
deprivation students go through each and every day. Unfortunately, often the decision to shift an
individual school’s schedule comes down to the superintendent and administrators of each
separate school district rather than government regulation. Recently, both the American
Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC released official statements regarding a needed shift in
nationwide start times to no earlier than 8:30 am. The American Academy of Pediatrics in their
statement said, “In most districts, middle and high-schools should aim for a starting time of no
earlier than 8:30 a.m. However, individual school districts also need to take average commuting
times and other exigencies into account in setting a start time that allows for adequate sleep
opportunity for students”.
Teenage students show substantial signs of fatigue and lack of sleep due to an irreversible shift
in their biological clocks and circadian rhythm as well as a shift in the time period in which the
production of melatonin occurs. The American Academy of Pediatrics characterizes this
phenomenon as a “phase delay” and sites an extreme shift in the process of nocturnal melatonin
secretion in the human body along with a dramatic transition in circadian rhythm from one which
shifts from a “morning type” to an “evening type” as a result of the onset of puberty. Schools with
start times at 8:30 or later found that students do not go to bed later as a result of the change,
but actually get an hour more of sleep per night. Overall, the school bell shift gives students an
average of five more hours of sleep per week, which may not seem like much, but when put on
a larger scale, it adds up to around two-hundred more hours of sleep per year.
The effects of scarcity of sleep resulting from early school start time are numerous in quantity.
Researchers and scientists often find an increase in stress, obesity, and depression among
others. The National Sleep Foundation found relationships between sleep level and drowsy
driving, irritability, depression, violence, drug use, decision making, and academic and athletic
achievement. Once more, in a scholarly journal and longitudinal study of sleep timing and
circadian rhythm written by Stephanie J Crowley, she identifies the consequences of irregular
sleep phase delay as linked to “...reduced alertness and performance, greater use of alcohol,
nicotine and caffeine, and an increased risk for depression and obesity”. All studies point to
severe issues when an individual receives insufficient sleep, as research from several hundred
researchers and scientists across the country can conclude.
One can argue American society values hard work and production more than any other country
in the world. But does being stuck in the way of normality really validate the halt of progress,
especially if it is for the better? Advocates against a change in the school system cling to
scheduling and economic issues as obstacles in enacting an adjustment in high school start time.
As a society all individuals must come together and fight for moral values such as health and
happiness and put it above money, greed, and production. A start time of 8:30 for all high schools
in the United States allows for a majority of students to receive a proper amount of sleep while
also leaving ample time for after school activities, sporting events, bus and public transportation,
and the synthesis of the school schedule of the students with the work schedule of parents.
American society must become aware of the ruinous cycle present in high schools and
immediately put pressure on government and school officials to put forth a plan in starting
schools later to allow students, particularly teenagers, to sleep more, perform at a higher level in
the classroom, and be more joyful, healthier members of society in order to begin a trend of
positive learning.

Effects if you lack sleep

We certainly know that a lack of sleep will actually prevent your brain from being able to
initially make new memories, so it's almost as though without sleep the memory inbox of
the brain shuts down and you can't commit new experiences to memory. So those new
incoming informational emails are just bounced, and you end up feeling as though you're
amnesiac. You can't essentially make and create those new memories.
We also know that a lack of sleep will lead to an increased development of a toxic protein
in the brain that is called beta-amyloid and that is associated with Alzheimer's disease
because it is during deep sleep at night when a sewage system within the brain actually
kicks in to high gear and it starts to wash away this toxic protein, beta-amyloid.
So, if you're not getting enough sleep each and every night, more of that Alzheimer's-
related protein will build up. The more protein that builds up, the greater your risk of
going on to develop dementia in later life.
What are the effects of sleep deprivation on the body? Well, there are many different
effects. Firstly, we know that sleep deprivation affects the reproductive system. We know
that men who are sleeping just five to six hours a night have a level of testosterone which
is that of someone ten years their senior. So, a lack of sleep will age you by almost a
decade in terms of that aspect of virility and wellness.
We also know that a lack of sleep impacts your immune system. So, after just one night
of four to five hours of sleep, there is a 70% reduction in critical anticancer-fighting
immune cells called natural killer cells. And that's the reason that we know that short
sleep duration predicts your risk for developing numerous forms of cancer. And that list
currently includes cancer of the bowel, cancer of the prostate, as well as cancer of the
breast.
In fact, the link between a lack of sleep and cancer is now so strong that recently the
World Health Organization decided to classify any form of nighttime shift work as a
probable carcinogen. So, in other words, jobs that may induce cancer because of a
disruption of your sleep rate rhythms.
We also know that a lack of sleep impacts your cardiovascular system because it is during
deep sleep at night that you receive this most wonderful form of effectively blood
pressure medication. Your heart rate drops, your blood pressure goes down.
If you're not getting sufficient sleep, you're not getting that reboot of the cardiovascular
system, so your blood pressure rises. You have, if you're getting six hours of sleep or less,
a 200% increased risk of having a fatal heart attack or stroke in your lifetime.
There is a global experiment that is performed on 1.6 billion people twice a year and it's
called daylight savings time. And we know that in the spring, when we lose one hour of
sleep, we see a subsequent 24% increase in heart attacks the following day.
Another question, perhaps, is what is the recycle rate of a human being? How long can
we actually last without sleep before we start to see declines in your brain function or
even impairments within your body? And the answer seems to be about 16 hours of
wakefulness.
Once you get past 16 hours of being awake, that's when we start to see mental
deterioration and physiological deterioration in the body. We know that after you've
been awake for 19 or 20 hours, your mental capacity is so impaired that you would be as
deficient as someone who was legally drunk behind the wheel of a car. So, if you were to
ask me what is the recycle rate of a human being, it does seem to be about 16 hours and
we need about eight hours of sleep to repair the damage of wakefulness. Wakefulness
essentially is low-level brain damage.