Start Later, Sleep Later: School Start Times and Adolescent Sleep in Homeschool Versus Public/Private School Students

Abstract

Homeschooled students provide a naturalistic comparison group for later/flexible school start times. This study compared sleep patterns and sleep hygiene for homeschooled students and public/private school students (grades 6-12). Public/private school students (n = 245) and homeschooled students (n = 162) completed a survey about sleep patterns and sleep hygiene. Significant school group differences were found for weekday bedtime, wake time, and total sleep time, with homeschooled students waking later and obtaining more sleep. Homeschooled students had later school start times, waking at the same time that public/private school students were starting school. Public/private school students had poorer sleep hygiene practices, reporting more homework and use of technology in the hour before bed. Regardless of school type, technology in the bedroom was associated with shorter sleep duration. Later school start times may be a potential countermeasure for insufficient sleep in adolescents. Future studies should further examine the relationship between school start times and daytime outcomes, including academic performance, mood, and health.

Figure 1

Weekday Bedtime and Weekday Total Sleep Time (Hours) by Grade Note. Shaded grey diamonds (◆) show the increasingly later bedtime that occurs with advancing grade, while the black squares (■) show the decrease in total sleep time with advancing grade. Significant difference in weekday bedtime, F(6,393)=18.05, p<.001, η_p² = .22, and weekday total sleep time, F(6,393)=17.01, p<.001, η_p² = .21.

Figure 2

Weekend Bedtime and Weekend Wake Time by Grade Note. Shaded grey diamonds (◆) show the increasingly later bedtime that occurs with advancing grade, while the black squares (■) show the increasing later wake time with advancing grade. Significant difference in weekend bedtime, F(1,392)=16.74, p<.001, η_p² = .20, and weekend wake time, F(1,392)=8.28, p<.001, η_p² =.11.

Figure 3

Representation of cumulative sleep duration comparison by group and cumulative difference in total sleep time over the course of a week. Note. Dark shaded bars represent cumulative sleep duration in public/private school students, light shaded bars represent cumulative sleep duration in homeschool students. The solid black line represents cumulative difference in sleep duration between the two school groups, increasing over the course of the school week, and slightly decreasing with weekend catch-up sleep.