Academic excellence gives students a strong sense of pride despite the hard effort to juggle homework, projects, quizzes and tests – most of the time all at once.
The pressure to keep up often comes with stress, anxiety and exhaustion. And as school workloads grow heavier, bedtimes get later while waking up each day rarely varies. This creates a sleep deprivation cycle that causes exhaustion, which affects mood, focus and overall wellbeing.
Sleep deprivation has become a major health concern for teenagers.
“A higher number of students with a 7 a.m. wakeup time showed many more mood derangements; they also had higher scores for depression, anxiety as well as stress,” according to a 2023 study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.
Some Kinkaid students feel this impact firsthand.
“All my assignments each night cause me to go to bed around 11:45 p.m., but I often have to wake up at 6:30 a.m. for office hours on the days that school starts at 8:30 a.m.,” sophomore Cooper Purdy said.
A late bedtime along with an early wake-up time is not good for development that occurs during sleep. Sleep plays a crucial role in brain development, emotional regulation and memory consolidation. A lack of sleep affects all three, which could, in turn, affect the quality of students’ schoolwork.
A later start time would benefit Kinkaid students by easing the pressure of early mornings and giving them more time to recover after demanding nights of homework.
“Having a consistent start time during the Interim Term was much better because it gave me a consistent sleep schedule,” freshman Carter Meserve said.
When students have a constant sleep schedule it creates better sleeping habits and allows for deeper sleep, better academic performance, fewer mood swings and lower stress levels.
Many students believe extra time in the morning can make a measurable difference.
“If school started at 9 that would give me much more time to sleep in a bit later while still having time to make it to office hours,” Purdy said.
Having a consistent 9 a.m. start would be beneficial because there would be less variability to the school schedule, which would make it easier for planning when to go to sleep and setting alarms.
More sleep doesn’t make students less productive; it increases their capability of handling their workload.
By prioritizing health alongside academic excellence, Kinkaid could create an environment where students are not just well rested but also mentally healthier.
