California residents and sleep experts met to discuss a state bill that would change school start times to 8:30 AM or later, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Cralle and other experts at the meeting cited studies dating back to the 1990s that highlight a correlation between increased academic and extracurricular pressures at middle and high schools and increased stress, problems falling asleep, increased potential for depression, greater likelihood to become overweight and increased chances of using risky substances to stay awake or deal with a lack of sleep.
“It’s a clash of very strong forces,” said Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom, lecturer and senior research fellow at the University of Minnesota. “It’s the biological demand of the teen brain to be asleep from 10:45 p.m. to 8 a.m., and high schools historically starting early.”
Read the whole story at www.latimes.com
