The effect of school start times on students’ sleep quality

The insufficient amount of sleep adolescents are obtaining has been seen to have various negative effects on their academic performance and social wellbeing. Through a two-part, mixed method approach, a survey based upon the comprehensive sleep quality assessment—The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index—along with a voluntary interview, was provided to participants from two public high schools in the northeastern region of the United States. Each of the schools with differing starting times in order to determine the effects a delayed school start time has on high school students' sleep quality. Upon calculating the sleep scores of the participants of each school, it was found that students attending school with a later start time do have significantly better sleep quality than that of their peers from the earlier starting high school (p