The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that middle and high schools start at 8:30am or later to give students the opportunity to get the amount of sleep they need, but most American adolescents start school too early for that to happen.

In an Explorer poll, 37 percent said 8:00am should be the time for schools to start.

“I think none of the kids get enough sleep every day,” junior Zahra Algilaly said.

“I personally only get five hours of sleep, which I believe is not enough for me. I think eight would be perfect. At least I will have one more hour to rest my body and finish the full cycle of sleep.” 

Recently, some area schools have changed their start time later to 8 or 9am.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is considering pushing the start time for high schools to 9 am. They said moving the time back would lead to better rested students who would do better in school. Also, changing the start time would save the district money on bus costs. 

Novi Public Schools planned to change their start times for the 2020-21 school year, but announced a delay until the 2021-22 year. Their start times were set to be 45 minutes later in high school, so their day would run from 8am to 2:44pm.

Dearborn Public Schools also recently announced it would explore the possibility of later start times.

“I feel like there is a right move. I can barely stay up in my first hour. I need that sleep,” sophomore Huda Mustafa said.

Some also suggested cutting down some credits which are not that important to have less hours of school.

“I think we should start school at 9 or 10 am, but I think we should get rid of classes that are not mandatory for you to graduate . Especially us seniors, we don’t need more than half our classes. So basically we are just here to waste our time,” senior Madison Green said.

In the poll, 21 percent of students said 7:10am is fine.

“I think changing the time might change everything,”  senior Sara Bakhtiar said. “The classes will end late and I personally can’t afford that…Yeah, the usual is fine.”