I have always thought that we underestimate the effects of too little sleep. People need sleep, especially young people, and the effects of sleep deprivation are subtle. Here is a study reporting reduced traffic accidents in teenagers who are able to get more sleep due to later school start times.
Around here, many schools have early start times, as early as 8am, to reduce bus costs. Having some schools start early and others later allows the same bus and driver to do two runs, and this saves money. It has always bothered me that we are making decisions about our children’s education to accommodate bus scheduling.
More Sleep, Fewer Student Car Accidents
And in the two years after the school hours change, the average crash rates for 17- and 19-year-old drivers in the county went down 16 percent. In the rest of the state, they increased almost 8 percent.