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In the hours before he’s due at Upper Darby High School, senior Khalid Doulat has time to say prayers, help his mother or prepare for track practice.
It’s a welcome shift from last year for him and thousands of students at the school, which pushed its start time back by more than two hours — from a 7:30 a.m. start time to 9:45 a.m. One goal for the change: to ease strains on students that were more visible than ever coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve been much happier in the mornings,” Doulat said. “I’ve been more positive, and I’ve come to school smiling more rather than, you know, grudging out of bed and stuff like that at 7:30.”
The idea of later school start times, pushed by many over the years as a way to help adolescents get more sleep, is getting a new look as a way to address the mental health crisis affecting teens across the U.S.
“We had a lot of those things that we were facing and we’re still working our way through it; we’re in a much better place,” Upper Darby Superintendent Daniel McGarry said. “I think our kids feel better. They’re not 100% better.” But, he said, much of the social anxiety students felt after being in online school has dissipated.
“These mental health challenges are already going to happen and then, with the absence of sleep, are much worse,” said Orfeu Buxton, director of the Sleep, Health & Society Collaboratory at Penn State University. “The same with decision making, suicidal ideation, those kinds of things.”
“I think getting more sleep is definitely helping,” said Elise Olmstead, a junior. “I would be more irritable throughout the day, especially later, because I have a lot of after-school things. I would just have a harder time getting through the day.”
Doulat, the Upper Darby senior, said that even if students can’t see the effects every day, there’s been a big positive impact.
“It’s such little changes in our daily lives that we don’t notice it,” he added. “But they slowly start building up, and we actually see the difference within our own lives.”
This article was provided by The Associated Press.