The Altoona School District plans to change school start times from 7:45 a.m to 7:30 a.m so they can save a quarter million dollars in transportation costs. With the schedule already early students will miss out on much needed sleep. While the move may be beneficial for the school, students are sadly left behind.

With school starting earlier, students will lose the sleep they need to grow and develop. Nationwide Children’s Hospital conducted a study on how much sleep teens and adolescents need. They found the average teen needs nine to nine and a half hours of sleep each night, but they found the average teen sleeps six to seven hours a night. This can result in poor decision making and irritable moods. With poor decision making students make decisions that affect their academic performance negatively. School is hard enough for some students but with lack of sleep school is even worse for students.

School is all about academic performance, but when the school makes it harder to perform academically there is a problem. According to research conducted by Nationwide Children’s Hospital students who receive less sleep than needed are more likely to receive poor grades and even fall asleep during class. With grades being the main focus for students, less sleep can make it harder for a student to achieve the grade they want.

Students who ride the bus have to wake up around 5 a.m, so they can get ready without missing the bus. While walkers can get up later, they still are under the recommended amount of sleep. Students do make up for lost time by taking a nap after school or getting to sleep earlier, but this can not be done most of the time because of homework and after school activities. Since most students will not quit sports or a club for extra sleep, and homework is required for every class earlier sleep can not be done.

While the new school schedule may be beneficial for the school, students are forgotten in the process. Without the much needed sleep, students will not be able to reach their full potential in and out of school.