Having trouble concentrating or staying awake in class? You just can’t focus no matter how hard you try. Well, the answer could be as easy as getting more sleep.

After doing a survey of 100 random students at Liberty, it was discovered that 83 percent of students get less than 8 hours of sleep on the average school night.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, “Research shows that adolescents require at least as much sleep as they did as children, generally 8 1/2 to 9 1/4 hours each night.”

The average Liberty student is only getting around 6 to 7 hours of sleep a night. Students at Liberty believe that an early school time is a big factor in their sleeping habits.

“A later start time is needed,” said freshman Shae Bowsher. “I am desperate for sleep.”

A later school time could give students more time to get the sleep they need. Additional sleep will help students be more alert in class and in turn their academic grades will go up. Students would also be less dependent on caffeine to make it through the day and we could see a reduction in tardiness to school.  

The Education Commission of the States says, “Researchers have found that students lose as much as an average of 2.7 hours of sleep on school days. This is why sleep loss in adolescence is greater than at any period in our lives.”

With that said, a later school time could also hurt students.

Junior Devin Eckardt says, “I say no to a later school time only because I am a morning person and would like to have more time to do things at the end of the day.”

Starting school later will cause extracurricular activities to begin later. Sporting events would go on into the evening causing students to go to bed later. It will also affect bus schedules, which is the biggest factor in our start time.

Mary LaPak (Director of Wentzville School District Community Relations) said in a statement last year, “The Liberty start time is different than the other (Wentzville School District) high schools because of transportation considerations.”

Delaying the school start time would impact the schedule of schools in the entire district, so there is a very little chance our start time will be changed anytime soon.

However, there may still be a way to help you get the sleep you need.

According to Times Educational Supplement (TES), “The problem, they say, is teenagers’ exposure to light. Getting up late in the morning leads to them leaving the lights on later at night, which delays their biological clock – in turn making it harder to get up.”

To help eliminate this problem, they recommend turning the lights down in the evening and at night. It is also recommended not to use electronics before bed. The blue light emitted from their screens can suppress melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone, and keep your brain alert which can make it difficult to fall asleep.

A later start time might be out of reach, but getting the sleep you need may not be.