BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Patrick Stubbins, 18, of Montgomery says he needs two alarm clocks to wake him.
(Craig Ruttle photo)
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Teen-agers who would relish sleeping in rather than answering a 7:15 a.m. homeroom bell have a new champion.
High school classes would start at 9 a.m. -- or later -- if Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., can push her proposal through Congress. Legislation she introduced in June would encourage school districts to start classes later to better align with teen-agers' body clocks.
Her "Zs to As Act" theorizes it would allow teens to get adequate sleep and thus arrive at school more alert.
A great idea, say teens such as Patrick Stubbins, 18, of Montgomery, who struggled for four years to answer Sycamore High School's 7:25 a.m. opening bell. His alarm would blast at 6 a.m. every school morning.
"I'm like a zombie then . . . not mentally functional," he said. This fall, he starts classes at Ohio University, where he discovered a wonder of higher education -- the ability to arrange a class schedule around sleep.
Patrick's earliest OU class: 10 a.m.
"I'm happy," he said.
A sampling of start-up times for local high schools shows most ring the first bell before 8 o'clock: Amelia, 7:15 a.m.; Anderson, 7:25 a.m.; Colerain, 7:40 a.m.; McNicholas, 7:48 a.m., Western Hills, 7:35 a.m.
It's a pattern followed by many districts locally and nationally -- starting high school classes early while younger children begin as late as 9:15 a.m.
"I've read the research, and they all say that we in education have it backward," said Bill Sears, assistant superintendent for Sycamore schools. "We're caught in the old pattern, where we want to get the older kids in early so they can go home to work on the farm."
Science backs up sleepy-eyed teens who yearn for less predawn activity, according to Ms. Lofgren, the mother of two teen-agers. She quotes research by Dr. William C. Dement of Stanford University, which notes that puberty changes a person's sleep cycle.
That means teens stay alert later at night than younger children and adults, and often are sleepier during early morning hours. A teen-ager's body clock can make it difficult to fall asleep early enough to be wide awake at 7 a.m.
Too many adolescents are severely sleep-deprived, which hurts them in the classroom, Dr. Dement concluded.
The catch, educators say, is that starting later in the morning means getting out later in the afternoon. Teen-agers' afternoons often are filled with part-time jobs, sports, band practice or watching over younger siblings.
Another problem: Bus schedules often determine a school's opening time. Staggered start-up times allow a district to use the same buses and drivers on different routes.
Ms. Lofgren's bill, supported by the National Sleep Foundation, provides federal grants of $25,000 as incentive for schools to change starting times.
That's worth thinking about, "but I don't think our community is ready for that big of a change," Mr. Sears said.
