I was gratified to see your editorial urging later school start times for adolescents.
As you point out, adolescent biology is changing from the “early birds” they were as children to the “night owls” they have become as teens.
This is aided, but not caused, by social media and the availability of screens. At the New Jersey Sleep Society we have been crusading for this for years; I personally served on a CDC panel to look at the issue on a national basis, and a significant portion of our 2015 Annual Meeting was devoted to this issue.
The counter arguments include athletics, childcare, and traffic issues, but these are all solvable. In other communities where the high school start times were pushed back, students got more sleep, their grades and scores improved, and teachers noted there were fewer fights in school!
The New Jersey Sleep Society supports these initiatives, but one has to wonder about the validity of the current hearings. I am told that no one came to speak before the committee in Camden, yet the meeting was not publicized; our Society has our ear to the ground on these issues, and we did not know about the hearings until after they had occurred.
I suspect there would have been better attendance and input had the hearings been better publicized.
Lee J. Brooks, MD
President of New Jersey Sleep Society
