Students get more time to sleep

Jackson Hole High School has pushed back its start time after participating in a study.

“The students were asked in the survey how many of them were receiving eight hours of sleep at night. Before the time change went into effect, 44 percent were getting eight hours of sleep. After these changes went into effect, 66 percent were getting eight hours of sleep,” says Steve Jansen, director of communication for Teton County School District #1.

The original start time was at 7:35 a.m. which has been changed to 8:55 a.m.

With this later start time students showed many improvements in GPA, tardiness, and excused absences.

Not getting a full night of sleep can impact teens’ overall health.

“There tends to be a lot more depression and anxiety, if we do not get enough sleep at night. There is increase drug and alcohol abuse if you do not get enough sleep at night (as well as) actual weight gain, insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease, so sleep is much more important than people think it is,” says Christina Finnerty, a family nurse practitioner.

The study showed during school nights, teens reported getting tired around 10 to 11 p.m. and not waking up until after 7 a.m. This is not because they’re lazy — it is because teens legitimately have a shift in their biological clock.

“It’s really important for teenagers to get enough sleep. It’s (also) a really hard thing for them to do. Teens actually have something called delayed sleep phase, not off of them, but teenagers actually have a delay time where their body puts out melatonin, which is what helps us get to sleep and it also wears off later,” says Finnerty.

Sleepiness is directly correlated with car crashes. After the school pushed back the start time the study showed car crashes for teenagers ages 16 to 18 went down from 23 to seven.

If you would like to take a look at the study click here.