The alarm rings, it’s time to go to school: after half an hour your teenage son is still under the covers and you are losing patience. If this scenario is familiar to you, you are not alone: most kids are unable to fall asleep early in the evening and, consequently, get up early in the morning.
Don’t blame yourself: biology is to blame, which during adolescence causes adolescents’ internal clock to change, making them stay alert until late. The problem, however, is that you have to go to school: what if the solution was to postpone the time of the entry bell?
The Zurich experiment: when time becomes “à la carte”
It is not the first time that science has asked itself this question. Several studies have done this in the past, and now a group of researchers from the University of Zurich also tried to see what would happen if children could choose to enter school one hour later. The research, published on Journal of Adolescence Healthfocused on the upper secondary school in Gossau (Zurich), where a flexible timetable system has been active for three years. Students can choose whether to attend optional courses before starting normal lessons or after, thus choosing when to enter school between 7.30 and 8.30.
More sleep, better grades: the numbers of Swiss success
The results speak clearly and confirm what was previously found: 95% of students chose to postpone their entry by an average of 38 minutes compared to the classic timetable (which called for everyone to enter at 7.20), gaining on average 45 minutes more sleep. The greater rest had positive impacts both on the well-being of the children, who reported falling asleep more easily in the evening and feeling better in general, and on their academic performance, with improvements especially in English and mathematics.
And in Italy? Between better hours and the risk of “deprivation”
One thing must be said: in Italy secondary schools normally start between 8 and 8.30, so our children are more rested than their Swiss colleagues.
The data on the topic varies greatly, with some more positive studies speaking of an average of around eight hours of sleep during the week and other, more negative ones, which underline the difficulties children have in falling asleep (remember that the Istituto Superiore della Sanità advises children between the ages of 14 and 17 to sleep between 8 and 10 hours a night).
Making school entry times more flexible could ultimately be a valid method to reduce chronic sleep deprivation among adolescents.
