Health Minister India please help kids

Making teens start school in the morning is 'cruel', brain doctor claims
Last updated at 00:22am on 12.01.07

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Teenage pupils should start school in the afternoon because making them turn up in the morning is "cruel", a top brain doctor has claimed.

Professor Russell Foster said teens would acheive more if they were allowed to have a lie-in and not start their classes until the afternoon.

The Oxford University neuroscientist said grumpy teenagers like Harry Enfield's comic creation Kevin follow different sleep patterns from adults - making them more alert in the afternoon than in the morning.

And he said German and American schools which switched to later start times had experienced improved success in exams and reduced rates of truancy and depression.

Prof Foster said that forcing teenagers to turn up to school in the morning could result in more errors, poor memory, reduced motivation and depression.

Allowing secondary school pupils a lie-in on the other hand would improve performance in key subjects like English and maths.

"It is cruel to impose a cultural pattern on teenagers that makes them underachieve," he told a conference at the University of Wales in Cardiff.

"Most school regimes force teenagers to function at a time of day that is suboptimal and many university students are exposed to considerable dangers from sleep deprivation."

Prof Foster, Oxford University's head of circadian neuroscience - the study of how the daily routine affects the brain - said the time at which children become fully awake gets progressively later as they get older. The pattern continues until the age of 20, when it begins to reverse, making adults more alert in the mornings.

His comments back up research published last year which recommended that schools and universities should not start until 11am because teenagers were in a "permament state of jet-lag".

The American study found that teenagers' biological clocks run later because a hormone known as melatonin, which promotes sleepiness, starts to be secreted in the brain much later than in adults.

The researchers found that students' performance in exams also went down when they sat them in the morning compared to the afternoon.

Prof Foster said: "Teenagers' body clocks can be delayed between two and four hours and they don't start to function until 10am or as late as noon.

"Studies in Germany and America show that when schools have changes start times to later, exam success has gone up and truancy and depression gone down."

He said the problem was worse in Britain where many students work long hours in part-time jobs to finance their degrees.

But teachers' leaders disagreed with the Prof Foster's views - saying they believed pupils performed better in the mornings.

National Association of Head Teachers director Anna Brychan said: "Our members are interested in anything which throws new light on the best way of helping young people develop their creative faculties.

"But many teachers will say they find their classes infinitely more receptive to new ideas in the mornings than in the afternoons."

NASUWT teacher's union official Geraint Davies said: "Schools have been trying to tackle this issue for years but have found pupils are more attentive in the morning."


Reader views (9)

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Here's a sample of the latest views published.

I personally agree with Professor Russell Foster's statement. I feel more tired and unable to think in the morning time, but the afternoon I start to feel more awake and able to think better.

"But many teachers will say they find their classes infinitely more receptive to new ideas in the mornings than in the afternoons."

Sure in the morning one may be more accepting to ideas, but that's only because they are too sleepy to protest them, or at least I know that's true for me. I'll agree to almost anything to avoid thinking in the morning time, it's also the time my parents can ask me to do something and I won't say "no" right off the bat. Because I just want them to leave me alone so I can close my eyes again.

- Allie, United States

I like prof Foster statement. Me personally at attending a high school find it very hard to function in the morning. Schools will find a dramatic increase in grades if they start school later.

- Zack Rogers, toronto, canada

I think it is a great idea for high school to start later, I wrote a paper on it and it would helps students a lot! It is proven that they get better grades and they need more sleep! Parents also love it because the unsupervised time is in the morning when the teens are sleeping and not after school.

- Dana, United States

Professor Russell Foster's observation about teens is okay but it will be more effective for kids and for their parents as morning hours must be peaceful and without any noise. As morning shows the day PEACE in the morning means a GREAT DAY untouched by depression/fatigue. Hope some good people help the kids of the world by providing them more relax moments in the morning.

- Ganesh Upadhyay, India

It would help with traffic congestion in rush hour and help working parents, if they started later and finished later.

It sounds mad, but if it works. Go with it.

- Paul Jardine, Bromley, Kent

Now what muppet came up with this one? As if kids aren't lazy enough!

- Jay, London

They should be made to have a big sing song before they start their work, that always woke me up in the morning!

- Isabel, Woking, England

Making anyone start work earlier than a couple of hours after sunrise is cruel (to say nothing of unnatural). Nevertheless, we have electric light, and the work needs doing.

Life can be cruel. Get used to it!

- Nigel, London

They'll get up at 10am instead of 7am, and be going to sleep at 1 am instead of 10pm. So what's gained? And with their daily cycle so out-of-whack with their parents' work cycle, the whole idea is nonsensical.

- Phil Jones, London UK