“Beep beep beep” is the infamous sound that makes every teenager wake up with a sense of annoyance.

Whether they’re running on eight hours of sleep, more, or less to no amount of sleep, it all seems to be adequate enough to meet the demanding needs of balancing one’s life. So the standing question lasts as we hear the struggles of balancing social life, work, school, and other pressing matters that take control of our lives: how do we manage to get enough sleep?

According to the National Sleep Foundation, research shows that adolescents are biologically set up to stay up late at night and wake up later in the morning. Most schools throughout the United States  start at 7:00 A.M and a recent poll conducted by them found that 60% of high schoolers report that they’re usually immensely tired and 15% of them report that they have fallen asleep during school hours. Usually, most teenagers report getting around three hours of sleep at night and the lack of sleep can have serious consequences that can lead into adulthood and affect their performance in school. 

From the lack of sleep students also face a lot of issues that can cause a lot of negative effects such as students being tired the ability to learn, listen, concentrate on problems and forget important information. It can also make you more prone to skin problems, lead to aggressive behavior, cause you to eat too much or eat a surplus of unhealthy foods, become more prone to getting sick, engaging in unsafe behavior, and an increased usage of caffeine. 

The benefits for getting more sleep would help contribute to performance, overall mood, and daily life.A few of them inolve improved chances of not getting into a depressed mood and aggressive behavior, reduced likelihood for tardiness or missing events, reduced absenteeism, better grades, less unsafe behavior, and a more overall healthy and positive lifestyle. 

With these facts, on April 2, 1999, Zoe Lofgren introduced the idea that schools should start at a later time, encouraging school districts to start at a later time no earlier than 8:30 A.M to keep a schedule intune with a teenager’s biological clock. Logren ended up saying in an interview that, “Over time, sleep deprivation leads to serious consequences for academic achievements, social behavior, and the health and safety of this nation’s youth.”

School times should start later because of the benefits sleep has on the current age of youth.  Which would improve their academic performance and other aspects of their life. Zoe Logren and many other congressmen have tried to push school starting back and with the benefits it seems like something that could happen in the future, especially with more schools starting to do it. Hopefully in the future as more of an awareness is being brought to teenagers and younger adolescents needing more rest schools will start later.