Article Summary

A study in Seattle found that pushing high school start times from 7:50 AM to 8:45 AM led to significant benefits for teens, including an average of 34 extra minutes of sleep per night, improved attendance, better grades, and a 4.5% increase in median grades, suggesting that later school start times could be a game-changer for adolescent health and academic success.

Since the 2018 Seattle study, broader implementation of later school start times has gained traction, with California becoming the first state in 2022 to mandate that high schools start no earlier than 8:30 AM, affecting roughly 3 million students; follow-up research, such as a 2021 Minnesota study across four districts, found that shifting start times by 20 to 65 minutes increased sleep by up to 16% and modestly boosted GPAs by 0.1 points on average, reinforcing the link between later starts, enhanced sleep, and academic benefits. However, logistical challenges like transportation and extracurricular scheduling remain hurdles for widespread adoption.

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