Till this day, I’m still amazed by the fact that in middle school, and throughout high school, I used to wake up at 4 to complete chores and still have enough energy to go to school. I was going to write this post after sleeping through my 8:30 class simply as proof of how lazy I’ve grown over the years, but after thorough research, I realized that there has actually been quality research done on this topic. There are two important facts I noted during the search that really struck me.
The first one is a reasonable and quite common ideology: everyone is different. Some people prefer to start classes early so they can spend the rest of the day completing assignments, participating in clubs, and then go to bed early. This chronotype is what we commonly “morning people” or “early birds”. For so long, this lifestyle has been seen as the ideal, and considering the perks it comes–more free time and “better sleep quality”–I can understand why. However, further research has been on people, specifically high schoolers and college freshmen, and now, a separate chronotype is being discovered–“night owls”. For night owls, it is easier to burn the candle at both ends when classes start later in the day or when there is an impulsive desire to study 11pm.
Secondly, biologically, teenagers have different body clocks compared to their elders. Due to this, teens have different rates of productivity at different times of the day. It is not really logical to expect every student to have the same level of concentration in all their classes. It has been noted that 10 or even 11 am are usually the ideal starting times for the first class of the day. It is important to acknowledge that this starting time might not work for everyone, and there is a possibility that some students prefer 8:30 classes over those that start later.
(Side Note: I definitely wouldn’t complain if required classes were offered at times other than 8:30 😭 @Penn🌚)
