Another study has found that students who get more sleep are more likely to outperform their peers, says Medical Xpress.

Conducted by a group of Canadian university researchers, the study focused on 74 elementary school students between the ages of 7 and 11.

Through extending students’ sleep by just 18.2 minutes five nights a week, the report says students dramatically improved grades on their respective report cards- specifically in English and Math.

The report recommends that parents try to add “small cumulative sleep extension” into their child’s schedules. For schools, it recommends re-evaluating "how to encourage integration of sleep education programs to the health curriculum.”

In America, school involvement in ensuring children get enough sleep is currently a big talking point.

Many schools across the country have adopted later school start times after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued warnings that said forcing children to get up to early could result in significant health problems such as obesity and alcohol/drug abuse.

And schools that haven’t yet adopted later start times are considering it. In Greenwich CT, for example, the school district developed a School Start Time (SST) Steering Committee to explore its options in implementing later times after facing pressure to do so. Parents are currently weighing in on seven different time options that consider costs and transportation- highlighting the kinds of issues that come with changing around times.

On the other hand, a school district in Wichita, Kansas is receiving negative attention after implementing earlier school start times due to budget problems; some schools in the district start at 7 a.m. in order to evenly distribute buses and maintain transportation costs.

Many speculate that later start times will help children lead healthier and more successful lives and doing otherwise is a disservice to students.

Read the full report.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

4/11/2016