Fairfax County Public Schools is considering a change to the middle school day, with the start of school moving from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. One sleep doctor says she’s all for it.
Dr. Keisha Sullivan, a sleep medicine physician with Kaiser Permanente, says of the proposal, “I think it’s great.” She adds that multiple studies confirm that children who get more sleep are more successful in school with lower dropout rates. “And to be honest, they’re just happier overall,” she says.
Middle school age is between 11 and 14 years old, and Sullivan says kids ages 6 through 12 should be getting nine to 12 hours of sleep per night, while those 13 to 18 should get about eight to 10 hours per night.
“That’s a lot of sleep to find in a busy day, right?” Sullivan says. “They have school; they have extracurricular activities; [as they get older] they may take on a job. And you find that there’s just not enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done in addition to sleeping.”
Sleep improves children’s cognitive function, attention span, and decision-making abilities. Sullivan adds that those are “all things that young adults need to be successful.”
It’s not just a matter of going to bed earlier either, Sullivan says.
“The older you get — specifically the adolescent, teen years — your body develops this natural desire or inclination to want to stay up later. So not only are you fighting whatever your day’s routine is, but then you’re developing a circadian rhythm disorder called delayed sleep phase, and that also affects a child’s ability to fall asleep on time,” she says.
Even just an opportunity for a half hour of extra sleep, she says, “will make a huge difference.”
Sullivan also wants to see a later start time for high school; elementary school kids “do tend to go to sleep earlier and want to wake up earlier, so earlier times for them aren’t necessarily as much of an issue.”
She wants to remind parents and kids about the basics of good sleep hygiene as well:
Kids should have a consistent bedtime and wake-up time, even on the weekends.
- When a child does sleep late, it shouldn’t be more than an hour later than usual.
- Make sure the sleeping environment is quiet, cool, and calm.
- Make sure your child gets exercise and activity during the day, “so when their bedtime does arise, they are sleepy.”
And even though “I would never neglect homework,” make sure they shut everything down an hour before bedtime: “That can affect how well they fall asleep, if their mind is still racing from whatever schoolwork they were previously working on.”
The school system has contracted a company to develop plans to implement the changes; parents, staff, and the community will have the chance to weigh in, and the change could begin in the fall of 2025.
Sullivan is sold. “If we can give them just a little more sleep time to make them a little more successful in life, why not?”
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
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