McKinley High School starts at 8:10 a.m and ends around 3:00 p.m every school day. This time schedule is similar to what most public high schools have in Hawaii. The start time is too early; school should start later in the morning.

Lack of sleep is bad for your health. If students have to wake up early in the morning and get themselves ready for school, they might not focus in class because they are tired from last night.Morning tiredness is also a safety hazard for students. They might not be paying   attention when entering a crosswalk.

Some students drive cars to school. Morning tiredness is an invisible killer to the people on the road and the students. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, teens with earlier school start times have higher crash rates. According to this report, a high school set the starting time later than before, and they realized the rate of car accidents involving students dropped.

Some student have to walk or live far way. So, if school starts at 8:10 a.m., they might have to wake up at 5:00 a.m. Students’ grades will suffer if they cannot pay attention in class. If students have more time to sleep in the morning, their grades and test scores could improve.

Some parents may think that school should not start later because their kids might stay up later at night if they have more time to sleep in the morning. Staying up late is a common problem for most teenagers.

However, according to the National Sleep Foundation, teens have their own internal clock. They will stay up late even if they have to get up early in the morning, so starting school later will not affect the regular routine of students but give them more time for sleeping.

Parents might also worry that if the school starts later, their kids will learn less. If schools changed start time to later, the end time would be later, too.

MHS also has Tiger Time, which provides time for students to finish their work after classes so every student could have more free time.

The perfect time to start school is around 9:30. Students could have enough time to eat breakfast, get themselves ready and have extra time to finish their homework if they did not have time to finish the night before.

Waking up too early hurts a student’s body, mind and attitude. So, having one more hour of sleep could help to improve the sleep quality of students and give them the energy they need for the rest of their day.