Erin Seils| Science and Technology Editior
How many times throughout the average school day do you say, “I’m tired”? If you’re anything like me, and several of my classmates, it’s something you grumble almost every period and if not, you’re at least feeling it.
Fortunately, I have some good news. It might not be your fault that you can’t seem to stop your eyes from closing when your teacher jabbering on and on about who knows what. Surprisingly, their monotonous, incessant ramblings may not be entirely to blame either. In fact, it’s all about our body clocks.
According to Dr Paul Kelley, of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, teenagers have different circadian rhythms (body clocks) which means that when our parents want to go to bed we’re not even a little drowsy. While our parents may consider our requests for “just 5 more minutes” in bed to be out of sheer laziness they should really be blaming our biology. Teenagers often struggle to concentrate on their school work because their internal body clock is telling them that they should be asleep.
Kelley recommends that for children aged 8 to 10 school should begin no earlier than 8.30am, for 16 year olds 10am would be the best time to start and 11am for 18 year olds.
Work ability is not the only thing affected by going against our circadian rhythms. This could lead to several problems including anxiety, stress and weight gain and can also increase the chance of a person taking risks. Kelley says:
“We are generally a sleep-deprived society but the 14-24 age group is more sleep-deprived than any other sector of society. This causes serious threats to health, mood performance and mental health.”
Alton College sixth form introduced a new structure to the school day in September 2017. Pupils are now in school from 10am until 4pm. So far, according to the Bordon Herald, 97% of students are in favour of the later start time.
Admittedly, starting later also means finishing later. However, some Alton College students say that they can actually get some work done before school in the morning meaning that this doesn’t have too drastic an effect on the time they have to work and relax in the evenings.
While some parents worry that later school start times would be a problem as they would have to trust their teenagers to get up and actually make their way to school on their own, Kelley says:
“The interesting thing is that parents usually support this. All the studies show that later start times improve family life, travel times are shorter, it’s safer for children to travel to school.”
Of course, we may find it difficult to get used to the 9 to 5 day which many jobs follow if we were start school later
While biology and the time of the school day certainly plays a big part in our tiredness, we could be partly at fault. Kelley explains the effect that using your smartphone before bed can have on our body clock.
“We’re finding that children have phones or tablet from the age of about 10 or 11. These devices emit light which mimics the light from the sun and they essentially trick our brains into thinking we should be active, not winding down for sleep, and that interferes with our circadian rhythms”
So, should schools let us have a lie-in?
