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On December 12, 2001 students at Walter Johnson High School (WJ) were asked to complete a survey to determine the amount of sleep they received each night. A total of 1260 surveys were tallied. They revealed that on average, WJ students get less than seven hours of sleep per night. Studies recommend that teenagers receive nine hours of sleep per night. The apparent sleep deficit experienced by WJ students appears to affect their ability to attend classes, stay alert in class, and finish homework assignments. Almost half of the WJ students who completed the survey arrive at school late because of oversleeping at least once a month. Almost half of the students are too tired to finish their homework and a high percent of students reported that they doze off in class one or more times per week. Approximately two-thirds of the students are too tired to finish their homework and doze off in class at least once a month. Sleep deprivation appears to be a safety issue as well. Of those students who drive to school, ten percent are drowsy while driving more than once a week; while almost a fifth drive drowsy at least once a month.
Preliminary statistical analyses[1] of the relationship between hours slept and the frequency with which students’ behavior is affected by tiredness in the WJ survey reveal a statistically significant relationship between fewer hours of sleep and frequency of missing school or coming to school late, dozing off in class, and failing to finish homework because of tiredness. In general, tiredness affects a student’s behavior approximately ten percent less often for each additional hour of sleep s/he gets on average. Over fifty-percent of the students surveyed would like to have school start at least an hour later in the morning (8:25 am rather than 7:25 am) Most school buses arrive at Walter Johnson at 7:00 am in order for drivers to have ample time to make the middle school transportation runs.
The following statistics summarize the results of the survey:
Average amount of sleep per school night: 6.8 hours
How often do you come to school late because of oversleeping:
1 or more times per week: 22 percent
1-3 times per month 22 percent
Every few months 27 percent
Never happens 30 percent
How often do you miss school due to tiredness:
1 or more times per week: 7 percent
1-3 times per month 15 percent
Every few months 26 percent
Never happens 50 percent
How often do you not finish homework because of being tired:
1 or more times per week: 46 percent
1-3 times per month 26 percent
Every few months 15 percent
Never happens 13 percent
How often do you doze off during class:
1 or more times per week: 44 percent
1-3 times per month 21 percent
Every few months 14 percent
Never happens 20 percent
How often do you have trouble staying alert in class:
1 or more times per week: 60 percent
1-3 times per month 16 percent
Every few months 12 percent
Never happens 9 percent
How often do you drive to school feeling drowsy:
1 or more times per week: 10 percent
1-3 times per month 9 percent
Every few months 6 percent
Never happens 17 percent
N/A 58 percent
What is the mode of transportation you use most frequently to get to school:
Bus 42 percent
Drive or ride with friend 34 percent
Parent drop-off 22 percent
Other 2 percent
Opinion on potential changes to school starting time:
Prefer current start time 29 percent
Prefer later start time 51 percent
Unsure 17 percent
No answer 2 percent
Grade breakdown of those surveyed:
9th grade 32 percent
10th grade 22 percent
11 th grade 23 percent
12 th grade 21 percent
“Research has shown that biological changes during puberty affect an adolescents’ internal sleep wake clock. Many adolescents are physiologically not ready to fall asleep until 11:00 pm or later,” reports Mary Carskadon, Ph.D. director of Brown University’s Bradley Hospital Sleep Lab. Dr. Carskadon further states, “Studies have proven that the average teenager needs about nine hours of sleep. Lack of sleep can cause memory lapses, irritability, anxiety, depression and decreased ability to handle complex tasks such as driving. Sleep deprived teens are more vulnerable to drug, alcohol and tobacco use. Mounting evidence indicates inadequate sleep transfers to poor grades.” Research by Professor Carskadon and Amy Wolfson, a psychology professor and the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachuesetts, found that students struggling or failing in school were getting less sleep that students getting A’s and B’s.
Bethesda Chevy Chase High School is attempting to start a pilot program in Fall 2002 to address the early start time problems for their high school students. BCC is planning to offer periods 2 to 8 starting at 8:23 am and ending at 3:02 pm along with the regular schedule of periods 1 through 7, at the standard start time for all high schools of 7:25 am and ending at 2:10 pm.
The WJ PTA has requested that the WJ leadership look closely at the BCC pilot program and work toward a later start time option beginning with the second semester of the 2002-03 school year. Suggestions have been made to address the potential after school activity problem by offering a study hall for students after the 7th period bell and begin the activities after the 8th period bell. This concept is similar to what the WJ football team has had in place for many years as they realize that many of the players would be too tired to do their homework after football practice.
The WJ survey specifically requested information regarding student transportation modes as it was realized that any change in school start time would not have funding support from the county or the state to provide the additional transportation needed. The WJ data indicates that more than 50 percent of the students at WJ use an alternative method to the school bus option.
In January 1998, Montgomery County released their study on “Changing Bell Times”. This report includes information on the scientific evidence regarding sleep needs for teenagers, start times for other schools in the D.C. metropolitan area and the financial ramifications of changing school start times in Montgomery County. The formula used to evaluate these ramifications included (in order)
1. Sleep Needs
2. Safety
3. Childcare
4. Before/after school activities for students
5. Before/after school activities for staff
6. Athletics
7. Miscellaneous
8. Transportation
Montgomery County high school students begin their school day earlier than learners in nearly all neighboring municipalities. The following information was reported on school start times for the D.C. metropolitan area:
Washington DC - all schools begin at 8:30 am and dismiss at 3:30 pm
Howard County, MD, - elementary schools stagger start times from 8:25 to 9:15, middle schools stagger between 7:45 and 8:30 am and all high schools start at 7:30 am.
Frederick County, MD - elementary schools start at 9:00 am, middle schools start at 8:00 am and high schools start at 8:00 am.
Prince George’s County, MD - elementary schools stagger start time from 8:00 to 9:30 am, middle schools stagger openings from 8:00 am to 9:30 am and high schools stagger start time from 8:00 am to 9:30 am.
Fairfax County, VA, elementary schools stagger start time from 8:10 am to 9:10 am, middle schools stagger start from 7:25 am to 7:45 am and all high schools start at 7:20 am.
Clearly any far reaching and substantive changes to the school start times in Montgomery County will require strong leadership from the county council to provide additional funding for transportation, or leadership from the Board of Education and school
[1] The series of regression analyses regress the frequencies of the various behaviors (arriving late, missing school, dozing off, etc) on the number of hours of sleep, controlling for the year in school. Analysis was done using both ordered probit, which is more appropriate for categorical variables, but harder to interpret, and ordinary least squares (OLS). For the OLS analysis, the year in school is treated as a dummy variable; the frequencies of behaviors are converted from categories to fractions of school- months (i.e. 1 or more times per week = 4/20; every few months = 1/40). Results were similar for both methodologies.