Raquel Gur, MD, PhD, a professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology at Penn Medicine, emphasizes the significance of sleep for the developing adolescent brain. She notes that during adolescence, critical changes occur in the brain that support learning, memory, emotional regulation, and decision-making. Deep sleep plays a vital role in helping young people encode, consolidate, and retain information. Gur stated, "Sleep is not something happening off to the side. It is integrated with the brain’s development during this vulnerable and important period."
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Lack of sufficient sleep can negatively impact attention, learning, memory, emotional regulation, and decision-making skills. Gur remarked that many might question a teen’s behavior by asking, "What were they thinking?" However, in adolescence, the cognitive tools necessary for making decisions are still developing, and restricted sleep can inhibit these capabilities. This can result in students being not only tired but also ill-equipped to manage stress, evaluate choices, and maintain focus during the school day.
Addressing a common misconception, Howard Gurubhagavatula, an expert in sleep medicine, explains that simply encouraging teens to go to bed earlier does not resolve the issue. While sleep hygiene is important, it does not counteract the biological shift causing teens’ sleep-wake patterns to differ from those of younger children and adults.
Concerns also arise about whether students would merely stay up later if schools began later. However, research indicates the opposite; when school start times are delayed, students typically achieve more total sleep.
When discussing implementation, districts face challenges such as transportation, athletics, after-school jobs, childcare, and family schedules. Nevertheless, sleep advocates and clinicians believe these obstacles should be balanced against the increasing evidence that early start times can adversely affect students’ health and academic performance.
In Pennsylvania, school code allows for later start times, though it does not mandate them statewide. It provides a framework for districts to explore this option, and approximately 50 districts across the state have already adopted later start times. As families prepare for a new school year, the practicalities of schedules and routines are important. However, scientific findings suggest that later start times may align better with the developing brain and body of adolescents.