• This map shows when school starts across America — way too early according to specialists.
• Due to early school starts, America’s students are “chronologically sleep-deprived.”
• California is spearheading a change, which should result in improved academic results.

Why do American high schools generally start so early?

One large part of the answer: school buses. A lot of school districts re-use the same buses to pick up students from different schools: first the high schoolers, then the middle schoolers, and finally the elementary schoolers. In South Carolina, the order is generally reversed, which is why it is among the “latest” states on this map.

Early school starts are not the only cause of teenage drowsiness, but they are a crucial factor — especially because natural sleep cycles make it difficult for post-puberty teenagers to fall asleep before 11 pm.

A poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that 59 percent of 6th through 8th graders and 87 percent of high school students got less than the recommended amount of sleep (8.5 to 9.5 hours) on school nights. In the words of America’s leading soporific publication Sleep Review, the average American adolescent is “chronically sleep-deprived and pathologically sleepy”.

Chronic sleep loss in adolescents has been linked to a host of negative consequences:

• Adolescents with sleep debt and/or disrupted sleep-wake cycles may suffer from poor judgment, lack of motivation, and overall reduced alertness, leading to poor academic performance.
• There is a bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbances and mood disorders, especially depression.
• Irregular and insufficient sleep in high school students has been found to predict certain types of risky behavior such as drunk driving, smoking, taking drugs, and delinquency.
• Adolescents with insufficient sleep have an increased risk of suicidal ideation.
• Several studies found links between sleep deprivation and obesity. One study estimates that for each hour of sleep lost (over a long period of time), the odds of being obese increased by 80 percent.
• Sleep deprivation leads to metabolic perturbations that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Sleepiness increases the risk of traffic accidents. Young people are particularly affected. A 1995 study found that 55 percent of crashes due to drowsiness were caused by drivers 25 years or younger.
• In 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Bill 328, which requires middle schools to begin no earlier than 8:00 am and high schools no earlier than 8:30 am. It will go into effect in 2022.
• If the measure proves successful, other states may consider similar moves. And there is some evidence that starting school later is beneficial. Around 400 school districts around the country have already moved their start time to 8:30 or later, often resulting in dramatically improved test scores, attendance rates, and graduation rates. (One Texas school district reported an 11 percent increase in its graduation rate.)

Reference: https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/heres-how-early-school-begins-and-why-it-is-bad-for-students