Starting School Later Could Save Teens Lives

Dr. Robert D. Vorona of Eastern Virginia Medical School, did a recent comparison study between two neighboring high schools, one that started at 7:20 am and one that started at 8:40 am. He found that the teens 16-18 who started school later had a car crash rate 19.2% lower than with the group who started school earlier.

The sleep specialist presented his findings to the Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting this week.

“Most of us in sleep medicine now believe that teenagers require nine-plus hours of sleep each night, and the consequences of insufficient sleep include excessive daytime sleepiness, mood disorders, and even potential suicidal ideation,” Vorona said.

“Many of us think that early high school start times could be problematic and may be a major determinant of these high rates of accidents and fatalities, and that later start times would be more in tune with teenagers’ circadian rhythm.”

Vorona and the other researchers who worked with him on the study got their data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles on all the accidents for the previous year which had drivers in the 16-18 age range. They compared the data to the overall number of accidents in the same period and analyzed them along with the time of day.

The researcher believes the explanation for the results lies in the connection to going against natural circadian rhythms and sleep inertia, where it takes a certain amount of time to be fully alert upon waking up from sleep.

Vorona said, “In one study, even 30 minutes after people woke up there was a 20% decrement in performance, so it’s possible these kids are getting up too early and getting in the car before they’re ready.”

More studies need to be done and with a larger, more varied selection of schools in order to fully prove the theory. However, it certainly does seem to indicate that our kids would be safer if they started school later, rather than earlier.