Delaying School Start for Adolescents has Positive Impact
Delaying an adolescent’s school start time by one hour has a positive effect on his or her cognitive performance according to a new study. The study, authored by Orna Tzischinsky, PhD, of Emek Yezreel College in Israel, focused on 47 eighth graders from two classes, who were divided into experimental and control groups for a two-week period. On week one, the experimental class began their school day one hour later than usual (at 8:30 a.m.), while the control class began at the regular time (7:30 a.m.). On week two, both classes began at 7:30 a.m. The subjects were asked to maintain their habitual sleep-wake pattern. Actigraphs were worn to monitor sleep-wake patterns. On the fifth day of each week, the students performed a cognitive test. According to the results, during the first week, the experimental class woke up 51 minutes … Read more