Sleep is an important form of rest to ensure optimal body function. Inadequate sleep is associated with so many emerging health issues in adolescents. This finding makes this study important for research. In school-going adolescents, inadequate sleep is an issue that is associated with school start time. The purpose of the study, School start time and sleep in Canadian adolescents, is to examine the association between school start time, sleep time, and fatigue in adolescents.
Hypotheses
The authors identify that during puberty, there is a delay in the circadian cycle which leads to natural sleep time of between 11 pm and 8 am . Based on this, the authors hypothesized that early school start time conflicts with the changing rhythms of sleep in adolescents. The authors assumed that there is a correlation between the early school start time and reduced sleep time in school-going adolescents. Additionally, the authors assume that early school start time also leads to more fatigue during the week.
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Procedure
The study used data from the 2013/14 Canadian Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey. The survey applied cluster profitability sampling based on grade and school. This study used a sample of 362 schools where 29,635 students between the age of 10 years and 18 years were the respondents – grade 5, 11, and 12 were excluded. The students reported their sleep time and wake time during weekdays and weekends for one week. The authors also collected data on individual fatigue when in school in the morning.
The authors applied descriptive statistics to determine the average sleep period of the children. Sleep adequacy was determined by comparing the student’s sleep time with national recommendations. The measure of fatigue in the morning was based on the choice of scale between agreed and strongly agreed. The authors used regression models to determine the relationship between the school start time and sleep time, sleep adequacy, and fatigue. The authors applied variables like grade, family wealth, travel time to school and neighborhood to further investigate this relationship.
Results
The study showed that on average, the school start time was 8:43 am with a range of 7:57 am to 9:37 am. The average sleep time was 10:20 pm leading to an average of 8 hours and 36 minutes as the sleep period during the weekdays. A total of 69% of the students conformed to the recommended sleep time while 60% felt fatigue in the morning. Sleep period has an inverse relationship with age, grade, and time it takes to get to school. There was no significant relationship between gender and sleep period. Students surveyed during autumn and those in grade 9-10 had great sleep gain due to delayed school start time compared to those in lower grades and surveyed in winter and spring. Students from rural schools and those that spend more than an hour getting to school benefited less from delayed start time.
The study shows that delayed start time associates to delayed bedtime during weekdays. However, if school time was delayed by ten minutes, sleep time would increase by 3.2 minutes leading to an increase in the probability of adequate sleep by 1.6% and a decrease in the probability of morning fatigue by 2.1%. According to the study, a delayed start time for school increases the sleep time for adolescents. The results support the study hypotheses.
Discussion
Canadian students are largely affected by inadequate sleep and fatigue. It is, therefore, evident that delayed school start time will help solve this problem. A small shift in school start time will go a long way in improving the sleep time in adolescents. This move would have significant impacts on the adolescents. There is a linear relationship between sleep time and school start time. The latest time that schools should adjust to is 9:30 am to ensure maximum sleep benefits to adolescents. Based on biological changes, fatigue may be a reflection of not only inadequate sleep but also a reflection of conflicts with the sleep time during the circadian cycle. This may explain why only one-third of the students did not meet the national sleep recommendations while 60% report to be tired in the morning.
Personal Response
This is an important study in the application of psychology to education management functions. It is also important in understanding adolescents and their sleep cycle based on school hours and the time they get to bed. It is interesting how much knowledge is applicable in determining sleep patterns. It is also interesting how small issues can reform so much.
Reference
Gariepy, G., Janssen, I., Sentenac, M., & Elgar, F. (2017). School Start Time and Sleep in Canadian Adolescents. Journal of Sleep Research, 26 , 195-201.
