Welcome to Start School Later
Northborough-Southborough, MA!
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Mary Leach joined the Algonquin Start Time Committee in March 2014 after watching her own kids running (racing) on empty week after week and year after year. They had become programmed to function pretty well with significantly inadequate sleep.
With this health epidemic, our kids have become overloaded file cabinets. There simply is not enough time for their brain to prepare for the next day. At night during sleep is when teens do their learning. Their brain takes information gathered during the day and puts it into context. And it is during sleep when their brain gets rid of information not worth keeping ... sorting and purging. We've heard it countless times. An adolescent’s brain needs 9 ¼ hours of sleep. However the majority of teens in our nation are averaging much less. There is inadequate time for their brain to do its job. The alarm is going off after about 6 1/2 to 7 hours of sleep and at an hour when their brain wants to be in REM. The teen brain does not want to get up and start working before 8 am. We have them waking at 6 AM to start collecting more information. Insufficient sleep significantly impacts reaction time so this is harming more than academics. This is impacting driving safety, athletics, performing arts, job performance, and more. So how can parents help? Advocate for later school start times by joining this campaign to move the clock in our district and advocate for more sleep for our teens. At the end of the day, we will have a community filled with healthier and more productive young men and women. Fill out the form on this page to contact us or join our Facebook group to get involved. |
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