Sleep is the Best Medication

            William Blake once said, "Think in the morning." In modern society influenced by early school schedules, most teenagers fail at fully adhering to Blake's last sentence: sleep in the night. Students' lack of sleep carries trying risks that can affect their well being and quality of life. As sleep deprivation serves as a leading catalyst threatening the health, safety, and academic performance of teens across the country, pushing for a later starting time provides for a logical solution to fix these troubling factors.
             The average high school student does not receive the highly recommended 8 ½ hours to 9 ½ hours of sleep per night that teens need for proper development and growth. Rising early in the morning interrupts sleep that is crucial for maintaining the natural sleep-cycle engineered into teenagers' biological makeup. We are more inclined to sleep later in the day as it is our bodies' natural tendency, and this lack of sleep can lead to numerous problems including poor academic achievement. Students who are lucky enough to maintain a healthy sleep pattern are more likely to score better on standardized tests, and failing to receive 8 hours per night can cause students to fall asleep during classes, resulting in them missing material taught during lessons. One may argue that starting school later would have students only falling asleep later. Personally being a student who does not gain enough sleep per night, experiences with school delays due to weather allowed me to sleep an extra hour to two hours and the difference in my level of alertness compared to a normal day was clearly evident. Not only did I pay attention to the lectures better, but the amount of information retained was appalling. The following evening, I was able to do homework without the use of notes to guide me as I relied solely on my memory from the day's previous classes. .
             As some would argue that teens only need to improve their own sleep habits and make conscious efforts to comply with a set bedtime, our bodies cannot allow us to easily do so.