THE IMPACT OF A DELAYED SCHOOL START-TIME ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SLEEP

Abstract

Research has consistently demonstrated that high school students are chronically sleep-deprived. Consequently, public high schools have utilized delaying school start-times in order to increase sleep duration. However, additional research is needed to investigate the long-term efficacy of this type of sleep intervention in the private school setting. Therefore, the present pre-post study investigated the impact of a 40-minute start-time delay on boarding school students’ sleep. Students in grades 9 through 12 completed an electronic self-report survey regarding their sleep on three occasions: pre-intervention (n = 349), post-intervention 1 (n = 357), and post-intervention 2 (n = 332). Results indicated that, in comparison to pre-intervention sleep, self-reported sleep duration increased significantly across grade levels for post-intervention 1 and post-intervention 2. This provides support for the stability of the sleep intervention across time. Self-reported sleep facilitators and barriers are also discussed.