During the summer of 2016, the start time for Bulkeley Middle School and Rhinebeck High School was changed from 7:30 AM to 8:00 AM.  It was marketed as a way to get children more sleep while still allowing time for sports and other after-school activities.

So then why are students still so exhausted in school?

The change to the start time is a welcome change, and theoretically, it should help students get more sleep.  But there’s still more to do, and a key place to start is at the end of the school day, when students split up and go to their respective extracurricular activities.

Teachers always bring up sleeping as a vitally important factor in maintaining teenage health.  While this is true, the many extracurricular activities that last late into the evening don’t help student’s efforts to follow the teachers’ advice.

Take school sports, for example.  “Depending on whether the game goes overtime, we can sometimes get home at 9:30, almost 10,” says Esther Murray, who is on the school soccer team.

When asked how she gets her homework done, Murray replies, “I don’t.  Well, I do, but I have to do homework during other classes.  Or I stay up late and do it. Like, I once studied until 1 in the morning for an AP Bio test.”

And sports aren’t the only activities in question.  Other after-school activities take up a lot of time, including the RHS Drama Club.  The rehearsals for Check, Please and Check, Please II began with a read-through of the entire script that began at 6:30 and ran till 8:30 at night.  

This is not a new problem.  During last year’s production of Mary Poppins, for 2-3 months, rehearsals ran until 9:30 several days a week.  There were some students who were trying to balance the play, advanced math classes, sports, and student council — while hearing health and science teachers remind students about how much sleep they need.

One popular suggestion is to move extracurricular activities to an earlier point in the after-school period.  

From athletes to actors, we are all teenagers with growing bodies and a growing need for a good night’s sleep.