Sleep expert Paul Kelley from the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, todays youth are so sleep deprived it is turning into an epidemic.
According to Kelley, “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.”
Kelley states that children are missing out on as much as 10 hours of sleep a week, which means they are more sleep deprived than a junior doctor who works on a 24 hour shift schedule! He recommends 8:30 a.m., or later, as the starting time of the day for 8 to 10 year olds, 10 a.m. for 16 year olds, and 11 a.m. for 18-year-olds.
Although this may seem dramatic according to our long standing prejudices of how things have always been done in the past, it is does have scientific merit and if it is a healthier approach, we should undoubtedly adapt accordingly.
Despite this, in America today, more than 75% of schools start before 8:30 a.m., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the similar statistics can be found in many parts of the world. According to a study, American children are the most sleep deprived in the world. Other countries with notably high rates of sleep deprivation include New Zealand, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Finland and the UK.
An epidemiologist, Anne Wheaton, has also explained that "getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance," which is absolutely true. It is simply a fact.
Expert Paul Kelley was previously a teacher at Monkseaton High School in the U.K., where a study was performed tested 10 a.m. as the start time for students. The change saw a significant improvement in higher grades and overall performance. He is now working with fellow scientists Russell Foster and Steven Lockley of Harvard Medical School, and the Education Endowment Foundation, as well as the Welcome Trust on the Teensleep project; which is the largest study of its kind that hope to change the time when our children start school.
Below you can watch a short video about the negative impacts of sleep deprivation;
