At precisely 6:45 in the morning, sophomore Sonja Paulson’s alarm goes off. Groaning and cranky, she rolls out of bed, not at all prepared to start a new day. She arrives to school tired, and nowhere near ready to concentrate for her first class, or any of her classes until at least 10 o’clock. In a vague attempt at concentration, Sonja jumpstarts her mind with coffee, forcing her eyelids to stay open. Unfortunately, she’s not the only half-asleep zombie that wanders the halls in the morning.

At 7:50 every morning, I can be found seated in my first period class, not-so wide awake or ready to face the grueling seven hour school day that awaits me. After that come the extracurricular activities that I am involved in. Despite many students having study halls, most arrive home after their activities to a mountain of homework or studying for the next day at school. Finally, after halfheartedly slogging their way through everything (or just giving up), they go to bed, sometimes at the most unnatural hours.

Teens need on average 8 to 10 hours of sleep, but most end up getting only 6 to 7 hours. Also, teenagers have a different sleep pattern, making it more natural for us to sleep around 11 p.m. and wake up around 9 a.m. With school starting at 7:50, our natural cycle is getting thrown off. As a result, we are more irritated, and might not be performing to our full potential at the beginning of the school day.

I think that we should start school later, everyday. Not a drastic two hours later; more like 30 minutes later. By doing this, we will be more awake and alert at the start of our day, less irritable, and more likely to perform better.