Starting High School One Hour Later May Reduce Teen Traffic Accidents

Science Daily (Dec. 17, 2008) — A new study shows that after a one-hour delay of school start times, teens increased their average nightly hours of sleep and decreased their "catch-up sleep" on the weekends, and they were involved in fewer auto accidents.

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- Name of people/institution responsible for conducting the study

Barbara Phillips, MD, director of the UK Healthcare Good Samaritan Sleep Center in Lexington, KY.

- Thoroughly explain the method of the study

The method consisted of two surveys, one administer in 1998 and the other one, one year later in 1999. 72.8 percent filled out the questionnaire before and after changing school start times with the difference of one hour later. The second part of the experiment was computing separated crash rates before and after school start times were changed concerning teen drivers.

- Describe the findings or results

Students sleeping at least 8 hours increased significantly from 35.7 percent to 50 percent.

Students who got at least nine hours of sleep also increased from 6.3 percent to 10.8 percent.

The average amount of "catch-up sleep," decreased from 1.9 hours to 1.1 hours.

Daytime sleepiness decreased, as reported by students using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

Average crash rates for teen drivers in the study dropped 16.5 percent compared to the two years prior to the change, while teen crash rates for the rest of the state increased 7.8 percent over the same time period.

- State your opinion on what you think of the article

I think that sleeping one more hour and decreasing the rate of accidents by 16.5 percent is good outcome of starting school one hour later, considering that for the rest of the county the rate of accidents increase by 7.8 percent. I would like it if we could start school one hour later.