When I reflect on my typical day, I find that high school start times are detrimental to the mental and physical well-being of students. School in and of itself is already a strenuous activity for many high schoolers, but doing this with limited sleep is even more detrimental.
Some might think the solution to this problem is to simply go to sleep earlier to combat the early start times. They might even say that it is the students’ responsibility themselves to take this initiative. However, this perspective fails to account for the workload placed on students through academics as well as extracurriculars.
A typical school day is about seven hours, often even more. This plus hours of homework, studying and extracurriculars leads to exhaustion and late nights. So in order for a student to succeed inside and outside of the classroom they are often forced to sacrifice sleep. How many of you readers can relate?
The high school experience rests on three pillars: academics, social life and sleep. While students are expected to balance all three, the reality is that one almost always falls to the side. With heavy workloads and early start times, I find myself sacrificing sleep. For many students, this sacrifice is not a choice but a necessity.
Between advanced coursework, sports practices, part-time jobs and family responsibilities, the hours left in the day quickly disappear. Homework that begins in the late afternoon often stretches well into the night, leaving students with far less sleep than what is recommended for adolescents. Even when students attempt to prioritize rest, the demands of school make it nearly impossible to do so consistently. The expectation to “manage time better” ignores the reality that there are simply not enough hours in the day.
I believe that chronic sleep deprivation affects more than just energy levels. It impacts focus, mental health, motivation and overall well-being, ultimately undermining the very success schools claim to prioritize. When students are exhausted, learning becomes less effective and stress becomes more overwhelming.
If schools truly aim to support students academically and emotionally, start times must be part of that conversation. Addressing early start times is not about lowering expectations, but about creating an environment where students are actually able to meet them.
What is often overlooked in discussions about early start times is that students are not choosing exhaustion out of poor habits or lack of discipline. Many are doing exactly what they are told to do: enrolling in challenging courses, committing to extracurriculars and striving to be well-rounded. Yet the system that encourages this level of involvement rarely accounts for the biological reality that teenagers need more sleep to function effectively.
By dismissing student exhaustion as a personal failure rather than a structural issue, schools place blame on students while ignoring the role early start times play in creating this imbalance.
