High school students in Borås will be able to snooze with a clear conscience this autumn.
They will participate in a research project about later school starts, where they get an extra hour of sleep in the morning.
– We go to school, there is a lot of homework and tests and we are teenagers and it takes a lot of energy, says Klara Dahl, student at Engelbrektsskolan.
For the first time, Swedish researchers will look at how later starting school affects teenagers’ health and cognitive ability. Similar studies in other countries have had good results.
The students in grades eight and nine at Engelbrektsskolan in Borås look forward to an extra hour of sleep in the morning.
– It feels good to be able to sleep a little longer. You’re a little tired this morning. Especially during the winter, when it’s nice to sleep longer, says Klara Dahl, student at the school.
Teenagers need more sleep
Studies show that between 30 and 50 percent of Swedish youth do not get the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep per night. But it is not the first time that schools have tested later school starts, but it is the first time that researchers have been involved.
Malin Jakobsson at Jönköping University researches the sleep of young people and emphasizes that for purely biological reasons teenagers have a different need for sleep.
– When you have entered puberty, the sleep phase shifts by about two hours, so the young people get tired later in the evening and become alert and alert later in the morning, says Malin Jakobsson.
And the consequences of lack of sleep are many. In addition to poorer concentration and learning ability, the risk of anxiety, depression, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases also increases.
Asking for sympathy
The students in Borås will be the first to leave, but the researchers hope that the experiment will continue.
– One hopes that this study will get good results and spread further in Sweden, says Malin Jakobsson.
The students hope that the experiment will lead to better grades and behavior in school. Klara Dahl also does not think that this should be taken as a sign that teenagers are lazy and lethargic.
– We go to school, there is a lot of homework and tests and we are teenagers and it takes a lot of energy. Especially if you exercise a lot after school. It is true that you have a little sympathy for teenagers, because everyone has been one once in their life, she says.