5. Reading. Task 3.1. Teenagers' Sleeping Habits

 

The first part of the Reading Task 3

 

 

Jilly Santos really did try to get to school on time. She set three successive alarms on her phone. Skipped breakfast. Hastily applied makeup while her father drove. But last year she rarely made it into the frantic rush at the doors of Rock Bridge High School by the first bell at 7:50 am. Mostly, it was the opposite – she joined the first lesson in silent solitude, 20 minutes late. Then she heard that the school board was about to make the day start even earlier, at 7:20 am.

“I thought, if that happens,” recalled Jilly, “I will drop out of school!” That was when the sleep-deprived teenager turned into a sleep activist. She was determined to convince the board of a truth she knew in the core of her tired body: teenagers are developmentally driven to be late to bed and late to rise. Could the board realign the first bell with that biological reality?

New evidence suggests that later high school starts have widespread benefits. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studied eight high schools in three states before and after they moved to later start times. The results showed that the later a school’s start time, the better off the students were on many measures, including mental health, attendance, attention in class and, in some schools, grades and standardized test scores.

Dr. Elizabeth Miller, chief of adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the research, noted that the study was not a randomized controlled trial, which would have compared schools that had changed times with similar schools that had not. But she said its methods were pragmatic and its findings promising. “Even schools with limited resources can make this one policy change with what appears to be advantages for their students,” Dr. Miller said.

Researchers have found that during adolescence, as hormones surge and the brain develops, teenagers who regularly sleep eight to nine hours a night learn better and are less likely to be tardy, get in fights, or sustain athletic injuries. Sleeping well can also help moderate their tendency toward impulsive or risky decision-making.

During puberty, teenagers have a later release of the “sleep” hormone melatonin, which means they tend not to feel drowsy until around 11:00 pm. That inclination can be further delayed by the stimulating blue light from electronic devices, which tricks the brain into sensing wakeful daylight, slowing the release of melatonin and the onset of sleep.

Despite growing support for a change in school policy in hundreds of schools in dozens of districts across the country, many parents and some students object to shifting the start of the day later. They say doing so makes sports practices end late, jeopardizes student jobs, bites into time for homework and extracurricular activities, and upsets the morning routine for working parents and younger children.

Jilly Santos contacted the nonprofit Start School Later, gathered research, and organized a campaign with friends, teachers, and students using emails, petitions, and posters. Her efforts and community outreach prompted the school board to meet and consider later start times. “It is really reassuring to know that students can have a say in the matter,” Jilly wrote. “So, thank you, guys, for that.” One month later, the decision was made at the board’s next meeting. The board voted, 6 to 1, to push back the high school start time to 9:00 am.

At 8:53. am, Jilly burst through the north entrance door, long hair uncombed and flyaway, wearing no makeup, lugging her backpack. “Even when I am late to school now,” she said, dashing down a corridor to make the 8:55 am bell, “it’s only by three or four minutes.” 
Adapted from nytimes.com

 

1. What made the school board’s proposed timetable change particularly troubling for Jilly?

 

 

 

4. What does the title “chief” indicate about Dr Miller's professional position?