Toronto high school students might get an extra two hours of sleep in the morning, after research showing that teenagers with more rest are happier, better functioning, and have increased memory retention, and subsequently achieve better grades at school. The plan is part of District School Board Trustee Cathy Dandy’s idea to let high school students begin their day at 11:30 a.m. to better support the adolescent sleep pattern. “There are all kinds of ways in which we are exploring [how to improve] student success, and this seems pretty basic,” Dandy told the Toronto Star last week. She suggested that teenagers aren’t lazy, but rather are just biologically deprived. Last year, a study at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians University proved that the onset of puberty shifts the body clock forward, making teenagers evening-type people, and making them less alert and functional in the morning.
