After sending out a survey about the school’s early start time, 82 students responded. Students get around 5-7 hours of sleep during the school week, 58.5% of students feel they are somewhat tired during the school day, 48.8% of students do not think the current start time allows them to get enough sleep throughout the night, while 42.7% of students sometimes feel like they do not get enough sleep. The small majority of students feel that their lack of sleep gives them less motivation to work, less focus on important classroom activities and lessons, and it dampens their mood and worsens their mental health.
The survey also revealed that 79.3% of students would support the school starting at a later time rather than early in the morning, though the majority of the students say they were never late to school. 36% do not think the early wake up time affects them at all, and they prefer it to be earlier so they can get more done; 32% feel tired after they wake up and feel they do not have enough time after sports practices and work to finish their homework before their preferred bed time, causing them to stay up longer, lose sleep, and become more tired the next day.
A smaller percentage of students reported more specific challenges. 3% feel they cannot focus on their morning classes when having to wake up early in the morning, especially if there are tests in their morning classes. 3% also believe that the early start time to school causes their mood to become worse, making their school day bad. 3% believe that waking up early causes a lack of motivation to do anything productive during or after school, causing them to lose out on opportunities that could help them better academically and mentally. 2% feel they become more stressed out due to the lack of sleep and early wake-up time. 1% feel rushed to get things done after waking up late due to being up trying to get homework done and working.
Finally, 13% have more unique opinions about early start times, most notably being a student who thinks that early start time could be a major factor in why so many high school students are addicted to energy drinks and coffee, there is not enough time for them to eat breakfast in the morning after having to do homework, and how the early times make it so that students do not have time to do things in their daily life because they are spending a lot of time on school-related things.
Delaney Muller, a senior at Hamburg Are High School, goes to sleep around 10:00 PM and wakes up at 5:30 AM. She says that she does feel rested when school starts, but only a little. She believes that the early wake-up time makes her slightly more tired and less motivated throughout the day, but a later wake-up time would not help her with the motivation and tiredness because she would probably get up at the same time anyway.
Autumn Maurer, a junior at Hamburg Area High School, goes to sleep at 10:00 PM and wakes up around 6:00 AM. She does not feel rested or focused when school starts and would prefer a later start time since she would have a lot more time to get ready for the school day and come prepared more often.
According to the student interviews and the information from the survey, many students think that a later start time would be better for their sleep and mental health, though this would mean that school would end later in the day, impacting after-school work and activities.
