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In the United States, the start school later movement is an interdisciplinary effort by health professionals, sleep researchers, educators, community advocates, parents, students, and other concerned citizens working for school hours that give students an opportunity to get enough sleep at optimal times. It bases its claims on a growing body of evidence that starting middle and high schools too early in the morning is unhealthy, counterproductive, and incompatible with adolescent sleep needs and patterns. During the second half of the 20th century, many public schools in the United States began shifting instructional time earlier than the more conventional bell time, thought out 9 a.m. Today it is common for American schools to begin the instructional day in the 7 a.m. hour and end about seven hours later, around 2 p.m. Most sleep research suggests that morning classes should begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. for middle and high school students.
Phyllis C. Zee is the Benjamin and Virginia T. Boshes Professor in Neurology, the director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine (CCSM) and the chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine (neurology) at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago. She is also the medical director of Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Adolescent sleep is typically poor in duration and quality. Sleep duration and quality reduce to suboptimal levels, and sleep duration variability and latency increases during adolescence. Sleep recommendations suggest that adolescents should obtain 8–10 hours of sleep per night. Additionally, there is a shift in the body's circadian rhythm such that sleep and wake timings become later during adolescence. Technology, social factors, and physical development are thought to contribute to poor sleep during this time. Poor sleep duration and quality in adolescents has been linked with altered brain functioning and development, poor mental and physical health, as well as higher rates of disease and mortality. The concerns surrounding poor sleep during adolescence has garnered significant public attention, especially concerning policies related to school start times.
Behavioral sleep medicine (BSM) is a field within sleep medicine that encompasses scientific inquiry and clinical treatment of sleep-related disorders, with a focus on the psychological, physiological, behavioral, cognitive, social, and cultural factors that affect sleep, as well as the impact of sleep on those factors. The clinical practice of BSM is an evidence-based behavioral health discipline that uses primarily non-pharmacological treatments. BSM interventions are typically problem-focused and oriented towards specific sleep complaints, but can be integrated with other medical or mental health treatments. The primary techniques used in BSM interventions involve education and systematic changes to the behaviors, thoughts, and environmental factors that initiate and maintain sleep-related difficulties.
References
- ↑ Carskadon, M.A. and Dement, W.C. Sleep tendency: an objective measure of sleep loss. Sleep Research 6: 200, 1977.
- ↑ "A Look at the School Start Times Debate" Archived 2008-04-16 at the Wayback Machine , National Sleep Foundation
- ↑ "Sleep Needs, Patterns, and Difficulties of Adolescents"
- ↑ "Sleep for Science" Archived 2008-05-17 at the Wayback Machine , Summer Sleep Study
- ↑ "Sleep Research Society Awards"
- ↑ "Prize Recipients". sleep.hms.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
- ↑ Carskadon, M.A. (Editor-in-Chief). The Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming, MacMillan Publishing Co., New York, 1993.
- ↑ Lee-Chiong T.L., Sateia, M.J., and Carskadon, M.A. (Editors). Sleep Medicine, Hanley & Belfus, Inc., Philadelphia, 2002
- ↑ Carskadon, M.A. (Editor). Adolescent Sleep Patterns: Biological, Social, and Psychological Influences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002
