Fatigued? Sleepy? Tired? Worn out? Research shows teens don't get nearly enough sleep

Central High School seniors Emma Porter, Carson Bahn and Lauren Tobin start their school day at 5:45 a.m. Some days it's even earlier, such as when the teens have a meeting before the first bell rings at 7:30 a.m.

The days can be long, especially when Tobin, the vice president of the school's student senate, has to meet after school, or when Porter has to baby-sit later in the day. The girls have about two hours of homework on most nights. By the time they crawl in bed at 10:30 p.m., they're exhausted.

Each of the Central seniors said they get an average of six to seven hours of sleep each night -- and that isn't enough, according to experts.

The National Sleep Foundation said only 20 percent of teens get the recommended nine hours of sleep on a school night, and nearly one-half sleep less than eight hours. In fact, at least 20 percent of high school students fall asleep in class on a typical day, according to an NSF survey.

To help sleepy teens, school districts in Minnesota are changing their start times for high school students. In the Minneapolis school district, the high school changed its start time from 7:20 to 8:40 a.m.

Dr. Mike Cowan, principal at Central High School, said the district has considered changing the high school's start time, but isn't sure the change would benefit students.

"The tradeoff of starting later would be going later," Cowan said. "This creates some problems unique to Central and other large schools in Southeast Missouri.

Many of the athletic teams and extra curricular clubs at Central travel to compete in the St. Louis-area regularly. When students compete in St. Louis, they sometimes need to leave school early, and don't arrive home until 10 and 11 p.m.

"If we are starting later, then we'll have to pull kids out of class even earlier," Cowan said. "They would be missing valuable instruction time."

After school athletic practices and clubs would also run later into the night with a delayed start.

Matt Willingham, a Central senior who played for the school's football team last year, said football practice would last until 6:15 p.m. "I couldn't see it running later than that," he said. "When you get home later, you would still have all your homework to do."

Central senior Jared Roop doesn't see any benefits to starting the day later.

"The benefit of getting to school early means we get out earlier," he said.

Roop works part-time during the week at Medicap Pharmacy. When Central students are released from school at 2:15 p.m., Roop has about one hour and 45 minutes of free time before heading to work.

"I use that time between school and work to relax or get homework done," he said.

Cowan believes the school's early start at 7:30 a.m. prepares students for the "adult world."

"I like to think of it as adjusting the students to a career schedule," he said.

Porter, Tobin and Bahn don't mind the early start to their day.

"Kids already go to bed late, and I think we would go to bed even later if we started school later," Porter said.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

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