Sleep-in to stay well: addressing school start times for the health and wellbeing of teens in Aotearoa

Charmaine Barber; Sarah Hetrick; Liza Edmonds; Rachel Taylor; Mohamed Alansari; Jacinta Oldehaver; Leigh Signal; Jillian Haszard; Barbara Galland

Sleep-in to stay well: addressing school start times for the health and wellbeing of teens in Aotearoa

N Z Med J. 2022 Jan 20;136(1568):98-104.

Authors

Charmaine Barber¹, Sarah Hetrick², Liza Edmonds³, Rachel Taylor⁴, Mohamed Alansari⁵, Jacinta Oldehaver⁶, Leigh Signal⁷, Jillian Haszard⁸, Barbara Galland⁹

Affiliations

¹ Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Women's & Children's Health, University of Otago, Dunedin.
² Associate Professor in Youth Mental Health, Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Waipapa Taumata Rau, Auckland, and A Better Start E Tipu E Rea National Science Challenge.
³ Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Women's & Children's Health and Kōhatu (Centre for Hauora Māori), University of Otago, Dunedin.
⁴ Research Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin.
⁵ Senior Researcher, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Wellington.
⁶ Lecturer and Co-Associate Dean Pacific, School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education and Social Work, Waipapa Taumata Rau, Auckland.
⁷ Professor of Fatigue Management and Sleep Health, Sleep/Wake Research Centre, School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Massey University, Wellington.
⁸ Senior Research Fellow, Biostatistics Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin.
⁹ Research Professor, Department of Women's & Children's Health, University of Otago, Dunedin.

PMID: 36657079

Abstract

The under-acknowledged malleability of secondary school start times may be a lever towards addressing poor sleep, particularly the sleep deprivation that many adolescents living in Aotearoa New Zealand experience on a daily basis. Scrutinising morning school start times has not been prioritised in terms of a logical, modifiable way to counteract sleep deprivation in adolescents in Aotearoa. Importantly, later start times align with adolescents' natural sleep-wake biology that shifts at puberty to favour later bedtimes, meaning they naturally need to wake later in the morning. In this viewpoint we argue that a later school start time (no earlier than 9:45 am) every day for senior secondary school students is an attractive, non-stigmatising approach to address adolescent sleep. Increased sleep also has the potential to favourably impact multiple areas of adolescents' health and wellbeing, as well as school success. In fact, we argue that later school start times are a public health imperative to address the sleep and mental health issues faced by youth in Aotearoa today.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Humans
New Zealand
Schools
Sleep
Sleep Deprivation* / prevention & control
Sleep Deprivation* / psychology
Students* / psychology
Time Factors