The Benefits of Later School Start Times on Middle School Students

This senior capstone research project focuses on the connection between later school start times and its benefits for middle school students. Adolescents begin to experience a lack of sleep during middle school, resulting in poor sleep health, potentially even up to the high school level, due to the repeated cycle of sleeping late and waking up early for several years. Consequently, this can result in limited academic success and induces behavioral problems. Through the use of literature review and anonymous surveys with teachers and students, the findings shed light on the sleep health of students, their thoughts on current school start times, and the teachers’ views on the effects current school start times have on students. The results also revealed that pushing school times by at least half an hour improves students’ sleep quality and academic achievement