For far too long teens have been sleep deprived due to early start times. We don't realize what it leads to. Sleep deprivation results in impaired memory and concentration, more mood swings, and chemical imbalances in the brain that lead to depression, anxiety, and poor impulse control. Recovering from just one hour of lost sleep can take up to 4 days to fix. So let's say we have a kid going to bed at 11pm, and they have to wake up at 6:20 for school. They are getting about 7 hours of sleep; for one of the 7 hours they are awake throughout the night in small spans, and for 3.5 hours they are in light sleep, where a little of their day gets put into memory and their body gets ready for deep sleep. They spend about an hour and a half in deep sleep putting the memories away, then they go into REM (rapid eye movement), where they process their memories and emotions for about 1. This really only gives them 2 and a half hours of recovery. They need 8-10 hours. You may think or say, "Go to bed earlier," but they can't.  The biological clock shifts during puberty, delaying the release of the sleep hormone melatonin. This happens due to all the hormones being put out. So they can't sleep until 10:30 to 11. Now with iPhones as well, this can make them stay up later through the night as well. What I'm proposing is we switch the start times of elementary schools with high schools, giving students and teens a little more time to rest. The child brain (ages 5-12) starts to feel tired around 7-9 pm; this gives them lots of time to sleep for a 6:30 wakeup. Studies show their brain starts to wake up earlier as well, meaning there are fewer forced wake-ups. The main reason we have the start time is so elementary and high schools can share the buses, so by switching, we will have fewer issues . 

Why this matters to me 

I've noticed in my friends and even my brother the effect of the early start times. My brother, an A+ student, changed into  "long as I was passing" over the span of his high school years, making him a depressed zombie. His brain released the sleep hormone around 11:30, making him go to bed late and wake up early. He was unmotivated and depressed. Most of this is related to not enough sleep, but it wasn't his fault he couldn't  sleep until late, and this is the case for most teens now. Sign my petition to help teens around Simcoe and Ontario