Don't overdo delays, doctor says
A veteran sleep neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital agrees that some adolescents can benefit from a later high school start time to accommodate their sleeping patterns, but cautions against starting school too late.
"It's probably a good concept and sometimes it has its pluses and its minuses," said Dr. Kenneth Sassower, who also is a pediatrician. He noted that some students have to get up at 5:30 or 6 a.m., which "goes against the grain of a subset of high school students" whose body clocks don't fit with the schedule.
"It may be a good idea to have a delayed start, but the question is, if it is too delayed, it may serve as its own problem," he added.
Sassower said starting the day later may prohibit the level of after-school activity or family interaction that students are used to pursuing. Plus, it may allow students to perpetuate a night-owl sleeping cycle that may be hard to shake later.
"Perhaps during high school, there is not so much harm, but the problem can come when high school students have to go to work or shift their schedule in summer months. Can they do it?" Sassower said in a telephone interview. "From a societal level, we can foster this staggered schedule in high school, but ultimately there's a time where these students will have to shift back at one point, whether they're in college or have a job during the summer. When this happens, it can sometimes be a shock to the system."
Much has been written on the sleep patterns of adolescents and how their academic performance, disposition, and safety, especially with regard to their reflexes while driving motor vehicles, can be improved by sleeping later in the day. However, Sassower said, there's little research to support the idea of starting younger children at school as early as 7:30 a.m., as has been voted on in Duxbury.
"I don't know that I would advocate for that," Sassower said. "I don't know that there is a lot of data to show advancing the curriculum hour is more beneficial than delaying the curriculum for high school students. . . . There is less data with regard to elementary school children with earlier times, but they may be able to function better than the high school students would.
"But I can see why parents would be perturbed - so much of going to bed and waking up is sort of a pattern. The more you're in a pattern, the better it is."
F. R. ELLEMENT 