California's New Law Bans Schools From Starting Before 8am (qz.com) 203
California governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law on Sunday preventing schools in the state from starting classes before 8am. Quartz reports: The law bars middle schools from starting before 8am, while high schools must wait till 8:30am to begin classes. This means that about half of California schools will need to delay their opening bell by 30 minutes or less, according to a legislative analysis (pdf), while one-quarter will need to wait an additional 31 to 60 minutes to get going. Schools have until July 1, 2022 to comply with the rule, or whenever their three-year collective bargaining agreements with employees expire -- whichever comes later. Some rural schools are exempt from the law, and the new start times do not apply to optional "zero period" classes.
The move makes California the first U.S. state to heed the call of health advocates who argue that early school start times are forcing adolescents to operate in a state of perpetual sleep deprivation. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which backed the bill, said in 2014 policy statement that getting too little sleep puts teenagers' physical and mental health at risk, as well as their academic performance. The organization cited research that shows that biological changes in puberty make it difficult for the average teenager to fall asleep before 11pm, and that teenagers need between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of sleep to function at their best. It recommended that schools adjust their schedules rather than compel students to go against their natural sleep rhythms.
The move makes California the first U.S. state to heed the call of health advocates who argue that early school start times are forcing adolescents to operate in a state of perpetual sleep deprivation. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which backed the bill, said in 2014 policy statement that getting too little sleep puts teenagers' physical and mental health at risk, as well as their academic performance. The organization cited research that shows that biological changes in puberty make it difficult for the average teenager to fall asleep before 11pm, and that teenagers need between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of sleep to function at their best. It recommended that schools adjust their schedules rather than compel students to go against their natural sleep rhythms.
8am is still early (Score:5, Interesting)
My son's high school starts at 8:50 Mon-Thursday, and 9:20 Friday (as a trial due to the same research as above).
At 8am, we're lucky if he has made it out of bed.
Re:8am is still early (Score:4, Interesting)
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I like how you ignore the actual main reason for sleep deprivation in teens. Smartphones.
Re:8am is still early (Score:5, Informative)
I like how you ignore the actual main reason for sleep deprivation in teens. Smartphones.
Teens were sleep deprived before smartphones turn up. There will always be a distraction.
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True, I played video games late and mom went to bed before me.
This circadian rhythm stuff is nonsense. Studies show without clocks and sunlight people's day cycles will get longer and longer, over 30 hours (one woman deep in a cave got up to a 37 hour day without sun or clocks.)
You need regular bed times and wind down so people aren't exhausted.
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This circadian rhythm stuff is nonsense. Studies show without clocks and sunlight people's day cycles will get longer and longer, over 30 hours (one woman deep in a cave got up to a 37 hour day without sun or clocks.)
WTF no it isn't. You can measure it. And the natural circadian rhythm in humans tends slightly long, not arbitrarily long. The 2017 Nobel prize went to people who found the mechanisms that control it.
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My internal clock is about 28 hours long, which has always resulted in this cycling sleep schedule where I'm awake at different hours on different days. Never bothered me; it mostly just annoyed other people.
So I got a job where the output is more important than the particular hour it's produced at. I go in, put in my 8 to 12 hours, and go home. Sometimes that's very early, sometimes late, but it only really matters for days where we have a team meeting, and there exists coffee for that.
Re:8am is still early (Score:4, Insightful)
". . . the new law has its detractors. A spokesperson for the California Teachers Association warned that it will put families with parents who don’t have flexibility over their start times at a disadvantage."
The study linked in TFA and referred to by the politicians as a reason for the change in start time says:
"From a biological perspective, at about the time of pubertal onset, most adolescents begin to experience a sleep–wake “phase delay” (later sleep onset and wake times), manifested as a shift of up to 2 hours relative to sleep–wake cycles in middle childhood. Two principal biological changes in sleep regulation are thought to be responsible for this phenomenon. One factor is delayed timing of nocturnal melatonin secretion across adolescence that parallels a shift in circadian phase preference from more “morning” type to more “evening” type, which consequently results in difficulty falling asleep at an earlier bedtime. The second biological factor is an altered “sleep drive” across adolescence, in which the pressure to fall asleep accumulates more slowly, as demonstrated by the adolescent brain’s response to sleep loss9 and by a longer time to fall asleep after being awake for 14.5 to 18.5 hours in postpubertal versus prepubertal teenagers."
But, of course, it's politically correct to blame teachers and their unions for every school related issue, not just the things they actually have significant influence on.
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That doesn't show that circadian rhythms are nonsense, only that they are driven by the body's perception of sunlight, a fact which has been well known for some time now.
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And before video games an exceptionally long phone cord had the same effect.
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[insert age-old problem] is clearly the result of [insert latest popular thing]
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Re: 8am is still early (Score:2)
If each generation keeps blaming a new technology, then maybe the problem isn't the technology.
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Why the F is this modded Troll? The language or people hate Kokuyo?!?
Mathew Walker, the sleep ambassador, who now advises the whole damn planet: from the UN to EU to everyone that is willing to listen, on Joe Rogan show he clearly stated (I read his book, the data and citations from 100+ years of study of sleep can be found inside) and YES, teens really should not be forced to wake up early. It is natural, has nothing to do with distractions and goes away as you age.
I did not have any distractions. Communis
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Your kid is a slacker.
I had to be at the bus stop by 6:50am as classes started at 7:35am. Piscataway had forced integration which meant they bused all the kids to race balance the classes. Start times were staggered so they had enough buses. High school started first and got out first. It sucked but I got used to it.
School was done at 2:15 which gave me enough time to get home, change clothes, do chores, then be at work by 4pm.
Work your kid harder after school. They'll be tired and go to sleep at a rea
Re:8am is still early (Score:5, Informative)
And just to squash it before it comes up, "It'll teach them to be adults" is not a legitimate reason. It's complete bullshit.
Re:8am is still early (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:8am is still early (Score:4, Interesting)
Point being, this issue predates cellphones by... all of human history. Cellphones probably make it worse, but the core issue is the shift in circadian rhythms.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
Importantly, a delay in the timing of sleep during the second decade of life has been observed in over 16 countries on 6 continents, in cultures ranging from pre-industrial to modern
If physiologic processes drive adolescent sleep patterns, then we would expect that other mammalian species might show similar changes in the timing of sleep and activity around the development of sexual maturation. To test this hypothesis, we reviewed data from nine studies that examined the daily rhythms of mammals during pubertal development
Oh, those marmoset teens and their newfangled gadgets.
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It's a classic example of people confusing cause and effect. They see kids staying up late wasting time with the latest fad, and their natural inclination is to blame the fad. More likely, though, it's that the kids want to stay up later than their parents do, and the fad is just how they choose to spend their time while doing so.
Re:8am is still early (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is someone a slacker because he wants to be at work when he can actually do some work?
You know who the real slackers are? The ones that come to work at 6am, completely still sleeping, have to pump 3 coffees into their system to be at least responsive when someone hits them in the face, then go home at 3am so they can "enjoy the day" after working maybe 4 hours effectively.
Re:8am is still early (Score:5, Funny)
at 3pm.
Didn't have my coffee yet, can you tell?
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Then perhaps they shouldn't have taken the job which requires them to be in the office at 6 AM.
Or is that too much like personal responsibility?
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They're not required to be here at 6am. That's the whole point. They're here at 6am, practically asleep at the desk, because that way they can get "work" hours while being practically spaced out and not fully aware that they're at their job. It's a bit like sleeping through the in-laws showing the photos of their vacation, time you can sleep away something pesky so you're refreshed for the things you enjoy doing.
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They happen to get away with it because of the idea that whoever is at work early is a good worker. I have no idea where that fallacy comes from, but it is quite hard to eradicate.
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If they were productive at 6am, I would have zero problem with it. My problem is that people get to work at 6am, are unproductive until like 9 because they are basically shambling about like half asleep zombies but are considered a shining example of productivity because they're here early.
I don't care when you show up, as far as I'm concerned you can arrive at 3pm, if that's when you're productive, great. But you better be it 'til midnight because I do want to get 9 productive hours out of you. I don't car
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Ha. I'm not a boss, which is good, because I would fret over those who show up here at 0630, log in, and then trundle down to the caf to get breakfast, chit chat, catch up on the stock market open, and finally log back in to check their auction results. Ugh.
Me? I'm much more efficient in wasting time. Vipers.
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You forgot to humblebrag about how you walked to school uphills both ways in blizzard conditions with rabid wolves nipping at your heels while eating lead paint chips to help your immune system fight off the smallpox virus.
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Ooooo.
I more than once was walking the 1.5 miles to high school, in winter, through the snow, when a car pulled up, door opened, and my vice-principal shouted 'get in, school is cancelled'. Duh. I left too early to get the report, and it wasn't always obvious the weather was bad enough. Usually it was the cold, not the snow.
Twice I got there to be met at the door with a taped-up note... Double duh.
Those were the days when a snowflake melted away. I miss that.
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I went to school in California in the 80s. My high school started at 630am (530 if you had zero period).
The stated reason was that we lived in an area where temperatures were regularly over 100 degrees during the day. Most of the school didn't have air conditioning (I think only the newer temporary buildings) and they wanted to get the kids in early enough to do PE before it was so hot everyone stroked out. Additionally the school ended at 2pm so you could get home before the hottest part of the day.
But I
How does this help? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How does this help? (Score:5, Insightful)
Teens will just stay up later
Research shows that they stay up later anyway.
Early start times mean they just end up getting less sleep, which has detrimental effects on brain development.
Early start times also means early release times, which means more unsupervised time before their parents get home from work. This is when most teen pregnancies happen.
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Bed time, phones on my dresser, no video games, read a book to get to sleep.
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Is the purpose of the law to benefit the students? Shouldn't compliance be universal rather than tied to the expiration of union contracts? If this was truly about the students then the law should go into force for the 2020-2021 school year and not be deferred until potentially the 2023-2024 school year. If later school start times correspond with better outcomes why is the state permitting some students to be permitted worse outcomes?
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IIf suddenly I didn't have to get up until, say, 8:50, I can't think of any reason I would not have stayed up until 3AM to compensate.
Perhaps. But research shows that is NOT how most teenagers respond. A 55 minute delay in school start time resulted in a median of 34 minutes of additional sleep.
Teens get more sleep with later school start time [sciencedaily.com]
Schools start too early [cdc.gov]
Later High School Start Times Improve Student Learning and Health [umn.edu]
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Well then, why not make the start time 9am? Isn't more sleep better?
Or, perhaps, 0930, just to be sure?
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"Warning! Discussion of how silly triggering is is itself triggering, and is desired by the State of California to be banned."
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If people can worship a god that behaves like a little brat in the terrible twos, why not elect a prez that acts mature in comparison?
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Mod correction. -1, Offtopic.
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If you read TFA @ https://pediatrics.aappublicat... [aappublications.org]
Early studies addressed a core question: âoeDoes delaying start time result in students obtaining more sleep, or do students just stay up later and thus negate the effects of the delayed start time?â
Wahlstrom et al50,51 assessed more than 18â000 high school students in Minneapolis before and after the districtâ(TM)s school start time changed from 7:15 am to 8:40 am beginning with the 1997â"1998 school year. Bedtimes after the change were similar (ie, did not shift to a later time) to those of students in schools that did not change start times, and, as a result, students obtained nearly 1 additional hour of sleep on school nights during the 1999â"2000 school year. Other studies have also failed to show a delay in bedtime in response to delayed start times. In a study involving grades 6 through 12 in a school district that delayed high school start times by 1 hour (7:30 to 8:30 am), students averaged 12 to 30 minutes more nightly sleep, and the percentage of students who reported â¥8 hours of sleep increased from 37% to 50%.52 Owens et al,53 in a study of adolescents attending an independent school that instituted a start time delay of 30 minutes (from 8:00 to 8:30 am), reported that average bedtimes actually shifted earlier by an average of 18 minutes, and mean self-reported school night sleep duration increased by 45 minutes. In addition, the percentage of students getting less than 7 hours of sleep decreased by 79%, and those reporting at least 8 hours of sleep increased from 16% to 55%. Finally, in a 3-year study of >9000 students from 8 public high schools in 3 states (Colorado, Wyoming, and Minnesota), the percentage of students sleeping â¥8 hours per night was dramatically higher in those schools that had a later start time (eg, 33% at 7:30 am vs 66% at 8:55 am).
Re:How does this help? (Score:5, Informative)
It is California think of anything then make laws for it. Land of the free?
State's rights! They can run their state as they see fit. So to quote conservative icon Antonin Scalia: Get over it!
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The takeaway is "situational ethics" where you value a principle highly in your rhetoric, when it supports a principle you already decided on for other reasons, and then value that principle lowly, if not outright attack it, when it gets in the way of some other principle.
The left and right flip flopped on this states' rights thing for net neutrality, with the democrats suddenly finding value in "50 states experimenting", and the republicans in "federal consistency among states Good".
Just be glad this count
Re:How does this help? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is California think of anything then make laws for it. Land of the free?
State's rights! They can run their state as they see fit. So to quote conservative icon Antonin Scalia: Get over it!
Speaking as a states' rights proponent actually living in California, I'm not sure you understand the point. States are soveriegn, yes... that means we don't need a Federal standard, and broadly speaking California should not have effective sway over what time school starts in Iowa.
It doesn't follow, however, that states shouldn't encourage local control absent a compelling reason for enforce a standard statewide. Here in San Diego, parents are highly split on the issue... That would seem to be strong evidence that a one-size-fits-all approach is incorrect and that this should be left to local school districts (which are responsive to local parents' requests) to decide... and possibly to the school itself.
California and the progressives within it have a long history of technocratic Utopian planning, whereby someone thinks something is a good idea somewhere and decides to make it mandatory everywhere. Especially in a state as broad and diverse as California, that's a recipe for increased resentment from being meddled with and told what to do "for your own good."
In particular, the last 2-3 years have been one example of this behavior after another. Brown at least was somewhat tempered by pragmatic experience -- Newsom and the SF and LA urban areas are running roughshod over everyone else who might think differently.
Nothing to do with states' rights. California definitely has the right to do it. It doesn't mean it *should*.
Re:How does this help? (Score:4, Interesting)
Here in San Diego, parents are highly split on the issue... That would seem to be strong evidence that a one-size-fits-all approach is incorrect and that this should be left to local school districts (which are responsive to local parents' requests) to decide... and possibly to the school itself.
Why on earth should school start times be up to the desires of the parents rather than the needs of the kids?
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Here in San Diego, parents are highly split on the issue... That would seem to be strong evidence that a one-size-fits-all approach is incorrect and that this should be left to local school districts (which are responsive to local parents' requests) to decide... and possibly to the school itself.
Why on earth should school start times be up to the desires of the parents rather than the needs of the kids?
Indeed. Here in our part of California, most parents voice complaints in the local newspaper and other online forums related to the inconvenience of driving and babysitting kids at times that don't align with morning commutes. That's what's important to many parents here. Incredible.
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Parents are the ones who pay taxes,
I pay money therefore I can fuck things up for someone else.
parents are the ones who know the non-school schedules of their kids,
But not their kids biology apparently.
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Last time I checked, each local school district had the "rights" to choose how they want to run their schools.
This might hot help some kids (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This might hot help some kids (Score:4, Interesting)
It's time we thought about changing our working/studying hours entirely to make them more practical for people, and requiring employers to offer flexible hours and working from home where possible.
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Wow you're on plus 4 troll at the moment. I'm hoping for a +5 since they're so rare.
I am really struggling to see what people are finding quite so offensive about your post.
Re:This might hot help some kids (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot is full of fake "libertarians" (a.k.a upper middle class suburban white guys in tech who never really had to try too hard at life). The idea of making laws to improve the human condition is abhorrent to them.
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Probably the usual "I have to, so everyone should have to" boomer.
Ya know the kind, the same one who runs along the lines of "I don't need/use it, so let's outlaw it".
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I don't' know what idiots modded you overrated but they don't need to be modding anymore.
What you posted makes perfect sense. The current work system was designed before the 19th century. Where everything shutdown at dark. We need to think about completely reordering our society, both work schedules and school.
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Newspaper boy (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to deliver newspapers between 6 and 7 AM, and earned decent money with that. Bought my first Intel 386DX powered PC with it. But it was pretty terrible for my sleep and I was always tired.
I'm quite amazed that actual science is driving legislation nowadays! It's much more common to make it easy for the parents, not the kids.
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I remember 5:30AM swim team/water polo practices and “zero hour” classes after that in high school. Despite not being a morning person back then, the only real pain was jumping into the cold pool as a zombie.
Good (Score:2)
Maybe the kids will be awake for the first few hours of their curriculum. I remember that back when I was a kid, we mostly looked like a Valium research group before 10.
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What time did your school start?
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0800. I was usually there but barely awake, which was probably a good thing. That way school didn't interfere with my education too much.
Why so early? (Score:2)
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In my area they stagger start times so they don't need to purchase as many buses and drivers. Middle schools start as early as 7:20, high schools around 8:00 and elementary between 8:30-9:15. I don't recall the exact figure, but this saves up to 40% on transportation costs.
Staggered start times... (Score:5, Interesting)
If schools need to stagger their start times (due to not having enough buses etc) why don't they have the primary school kids (who's body clocks mean they should be going to bed early and getting up early) start first so the older kids can start later (and have the later-to-bed later-to-rise sleep pattern teen body clocks need)
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You should read the summary again and take special note of the part that says "The law bars middle schools from starting before 8am, while high schools must wait till 8:30am to begin classes."
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I believe that originally they thought that the older kids could tough it out and start earlier, and that younger kids needed their extra sleep. Turns out that the actual research suggests the opposite.
Hmm (Score:4, Insightful)
The organization cited research that shows that biological changes in puberty make it difficult for the average teenager to fall asleep before 11pm
First of all, I strongly support schools starting not so insanely early. Kudos to that in general, and let it spread far and wide.
That said, we have multiple teens, and mainly to manage space they are expected to retire to their device-less rooms by 9 PM. We don't tell them to sleep (as though you could order someone to sleep anyway) but surprise surprise, they mostly do go to sleep in short order.
So I suspect that the difficulty for the average teen at falling asleep before 11 is cultural, not something intrinsic ...
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So I suspect that the difficulty for the average teen at falling asleep before 11 is cultural, not something intrinsic ...
You can actually measure the circadian rhythm using various proxies such as body temperature. Teenagers on average have that shifted back by hours relative to adults.
That said, we have multiple teens, and mainly to manage space they are expected to retire to their device-less rooms by 9 PM. We don't tell them to sleep (as though you could order someone to sleep anyway) but surprise surpr
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So I suspect that the difficulty for the average teen at falling asleep before 11 is cultural, not something intrinsic ...
You can actually measure the circadian rhythm using various proxies such as body temperature. Teenagers on average have that shifted back by hours relative to adults.
Who do they measure though? I can fully believe that people who don't normally sleep until midnight have bodies that don't prepare for sleep until midnight, but what does that prove?
Also, how do you know? Unless you're checking in on them how do you know they're asleep.
Well they snore for one thing. Also if we forgot to tell them something, we go to tell them and find them asleep, for example. That sort of thing. You tend to know these things with people you live with.
And sure they don't have the devices that you know of, but do you really know they haven't bought a $30 phone off ebay and a sim with data?
Anything's possible, lol. Considering what other schemes they fail to pull off, I'd be impressed, but whatever.
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Except that there is a bunch of research crossing cultural and even species boundaries about this. The research is partly convincing because it's not something that the researchers are likely to have been motivated to find as a result, since it goes pretty much as the opposite of our normal cultural beliefs and sleep and laziness.
Silmple Solition: day light savings time to the s (Score:2)
Move the clocks forward during summer break. athen when school starts, move them back an hour.
Holy crap! (Score:3)
Oh man! My driving license says I'm 47, but I think I'm still a teenager!
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Oh man! My driving license says I'm 47, but I think I'm still a teenager!
Funny. I'm the opposite. I'm just a few years younger than you but my body clock changed drastically when I turned 40. I'm up at 5am whether I like it or not. I used to go to work by 6 but instead switched to going to Jiu Jitsu at 6 and rolling until 7:30 - 8 then going to work. All my direct reports are young and dont show up until 9-10am. I didn't want to be that boss that was there early and making people feel like they needed to be there too.
Or they could (Score:2)
just get rid of daylight saving.
Re:Can't control bed times (Score:5, Informative)
Don't have to wake up until 11:00 a.m. or later on a weekend? Then they will just go to sleep at 4 a.m. or later.
This is not supported by evidence. Teen sleep patterns are affected by daylight, and later school starting times are strongly correlated with more sleep. Here is one study [sciencedaily.com]. There are many more.
This is a parenting issue not a scheduling problem.
Bullcrap. The worst thing parents can do is roust their teens out of bed early on the weekends. Teens need to make up the sleep deficit that is built up on the school days.
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Daylight is easily controlled by blinds. Smartphones in bed on the other hand are hard to control.
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This is not supported by evidence. Teen sleep patterns are affected by daylight, and later school starting times are strongly correlated with more sleep. Here is one study [sciencedaily.com]. There are many more.
It would be interesting to know the controls on these studies. I can fully believe that the bodies of those who already stay up late do not get ready to sleep until late. That doesn't rule out cultural effects (i.e. they don't have adult responsibilities, they are allowed to stay up late, their friends stay up late, etc.).
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They will go to sleep when they are tired and wake up when they have had enough sleep, just like everyone else.
Re: Can't control bed times (Score:2)
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If he signs that bill, invest in whatever pharma company makes the most popular sleeping pills.
You can force someone to lie down in a bed, but you can't make someone sleep without drugs.
Re:Nanny Newsom Misses Again (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes because protecting people who literally cannot protect themselves in this regard (teenagers) from idiotic adults who believe that an early waking time is somehow "virtuous" is totally the same as mandating wearables.
Teenagers have on average later sleeping and later rising times than adults. Many adults are idiots and will force teenagers to live on a schedule that goes against their biology and prevents them from getting sufficient sleep. This can cause actual, permanent damage. Protecting teenagers from such foolishness is precisely what the law is good for.
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If you trust the state to do a better job, on average, of protecting children than their own parents, then you're a fool. Your exaggerated, melodramatic language about adults "forcing" sleep patterns on children will only embolden those who wish to control us further "for our own good". So in a sense this infantilization of adults will make us all children of the all-"knowing" and mothering government.
The fact is, parents can screw up their kids in so many other ways: no enforcement of homework, lack of c
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Your exaggerated, melodramatic language about adults "forcing" sleep patterns on children will only embolden those who wish to control us further "for our own good"
It's neither exaggerated nor melodramatic. Teenagers have a later circadian rhythm than adults. Moving the school start later demonstrably gives teenagers more sleep (this has been measured). Sleep is a crucial part of brain development (something that happens during teenage years) and sleep deprivation does cause developmental changes.
Just becau
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From TFA ( https://pediatrics.aappublicat... [aappublications.org] ):
Early studies addressed a core question: âoeDoes delaying start time result in students obtaining more sleep, or do students just stay up later and thus negate the effects of the delayed start time?â Wahlstrom et al50,51 assessed more than 18â000 high school students in Minneapolis before and after the districtâ(TM)s school start time changed from 7:15 am to 8:40 am beginning with the 1997â"1998 school year. Bedtimes after the change were similar (ie, did not shift to a later time) to those of students in schools that did not change start times, and, as a result, students obtained nearly 1 additional hour of sleep on school nights during the 1999â"2000 school year. Other studies have also failed to show a delay in bedtime in response to delayed start times. In a study involving grades 6 through 12 in a school district that delayed high school start times by 1 hour (7:30 to 8:30 am), students averaged 12 to 30 minutes more nightly sleep, and the percentage of students who reported â¥8 hours of sleep increased from 37% to 50%.52 Owens et al,53 in a study of adolescents attending an independent school that instituted a start time delay of 30 minutes (from 8:00 to 8:30 am), reported that average bedtimes actually shifted earlier by an average of 18 minutes, and mean self-reported school night sleep duration increased by 45 minutes. In addition, the percentage of students getting less than 7 hours of sleep decreased by 79%, and those reporting at least 8 hours of sleep increased from 16% to 55%. Finally, in a 3-year study of >9000 students from 8 public high schools in 3 states (Colorado, Wyoming, and Minnesota), the percentage of students sleeping â¥8 hours per night was dramatically higher in those schools that had a later start time (eg, 33% at 7:30 am vs 66% at 8:55 am).54
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Oh, because heaven knows nobody can worry about 2 things at once :eyeroll:
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Well by that logic we shouldn't worry about *anything* until we've fixed everything. Are you now complaining about them getting something done, because they didn't magically fix all things at once?
Let's just suspend all other government services until we've got the murder rate to zero and the cancer rate to zero, right?
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You do know that a school should be a place of learning, not one where they take care of your kids so you don't have to, right?
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They just didn't want the 0-30 minute and 31-60 minute sets to have any overlap.