Impact of Changing School Start Times on Teacher Sleep Health and Daytime Functioning.

BACKGROUND: The benefits of delaying school start times for secondary students are well-established. However, no previous study has considered how changing school start times impacts sleep and daytime functioning for K-12 teachers. METHODS: Teachers in a large suburban school district completed 3 annual surveys (pre-change n = 1687, post-change n = 1857, follow-up n = 1812) assessing sleep and daytime functioning. RESULTS: With delayed start times, high school teachers had later rise times (high school [HS]: 28 minutes, middle school [MS]: 14 minutes), increased sleep duration (HS: 22 minutes, MS: 13 minutes), and improved daytime functioning. Improvements for middle school teachers were noted but were not statistically significant. With earlier start times, elementary teachers reported earlier bedtimes (9 minutes) and wake times (9 minutes), with no changes in sleep duration or daytime functioning. IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY: Today's school health policies often focus on wellness. Findings from this study reveal that the policy of healthy school start times can have a significant, positive impact on adults who teach in later-starting secondary schools. Later school start times for secondary teachers provide greater parity with their elementary colleagues in terms of sleep opportunity. CONCLUSIONS: This study extends previous findings on how the policy of later secondary school start times improves the health and well-being of adolescents, highlighting that healthy start times contribute to increased sleep opportunity for MS and HS teachers and improved daytime functioning for HS teachers, with changed start times having no significant negative effect on elementary school teachers.

Impact of changing school start times on parent sleep.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of changing school start times on sleep in parents of students in elementary, middle, and high school. METHODS: Annual surveys were completed by parents of K-12 students (n = 8190-10,592 per year) before (pre-change) and for 2 years (post-change, follow-up) after implementation of new school start times (elementary school [ES]: 60 minutes earlier, middle school [MS]: 40-60 minutes later, high school [HS]: 70 minutes later), providing parent self-reported weekday bedtime and wake time, sleep quality, and feeling tired. RESULTS: Significant level-by-year interactions were found for parent bedtime, wake time, and sleep duration (all p < .0001). Post hoc analyses show ES parents reporting earlier bedtimes and wake times at post-change, with no change in sleep duration, while MS and HS parents reported later post-change wake times. Post-change, more MS and HS parents reported sufficient sleep duration (p < .0001) and good sleep quality (p < .0001), with fewer HS parents reporting feeling tired (p < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to consider the impact of a policy change aimed at improving child sleep on parent sleep. Healthy school start times has a significantly positive downstream effect on secondary school parents' sleep and daytime functioning, with minimal impact reported by parents of elementary school students.

Engaging the community in the process of changing school start times: experience of the Cherry Creek School District.

Despite growing evidence of the positive impact of later school start times on adolescent health and academic outcomes, relatively few districts have changed start times due to concerns about transportation, child care, and athletics/extracurricular activities. This paper provides a case study of the Cherry Creek School District's (CCSD) successful efforts to change start times. The CCSD is a diverse district with an enrollment of almost 55,000 students in suburban Denver. As part of CCSD's strategic plan, a multi-disciplinary task force was formed to examine the impact of start times on student achievement, and recommend a start time schedule driven by best practices on adolescent sleep patterns, balanced with family and community needs. Over 18 months the task force's work included engaging the community through meetings, as well as conducting a large survey (n = 24,574) of parents, teachers, and students, and gathering online feedback. An iterative process utilized feedback at every stage to refine the final recommendation given to the Board of Education. Survey results, implementation considerations, outcome evaluation plans, and lessons learned are discussed.

Predictors of meeting physical activity and fruit and vegetable recommendations in 9-11-year-old children.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood obesity represents a significant public health problem. This study examined physical activity and nutrition behaviours and attitudes of 9-11-year-olds, and factors influencing these behaviours. DESIGN: Study participants recorded pedometer steps for 7 days and completed physical activity enjoyment, food attitudes and food frequency questionnaires. Fruit and vegetable sales data were collected from schools. The setting for the study was elementary schools in metropolitan Denver, Colorado (USA). METHOD: Logistic regression was used to determine significant predictors of meeting physical activity/fruit and vegetable intake recommendations. RESULTS: Overall, 42.0% of boys and 44.1% of girls met step count recommendations. Further, 30.9% of boys and 32.8% of girls met step count requirements associated with low risk for overweight/obesity. Enjoyment of physical activity significantly predicted achieving recommendations. Overall, 66.4%, 51.3% and 65.8% of 9-11-year-olds achieved adequate fruit, vegetable, or fruit and vegetable intake, respectively. Enjoyment of fruit/vegetable consumption, perceived parental intake and encouragement and cups of vegetables purchased predicted achieving adequate intake. CONCLUSION: The majority of young people aged 9-11 years failed to meet step count recommendations to prevent the risk for overweight/obesity. A significant proportion also failed to achieve adequate fruit and/or vegetable intake. Future programmes and interventions should affect multiple environments in order to improve child enjoyment of physical activity and fruit/vegetable intake in order to improve the physical, mental and emotional health of children.

The association of self-reported sleep, weight status, and academic performance in fifth-grade students.

BACKGROUND: To improve support and justification for health promotion efforts in schools, it is helpful to understand how students' health behaviors affect academic performance. METHODS: Fifth-grade students completed an online school-administered health survey with questions regarding their eating behavior, physical activity, academic performance, and sleep patterns. Differences in health behaviors were examined by sex, self-reported weight status, and sufficient (≥9 hours) versus insufficient sleep. Logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between academic performance and the health behaviors. RESULTS: One third of the sample did not get the recommended amount of physical activity and more than half of the students watched television ≥ 2 hours/day. Self-reported overweight status was related to lower self-reported academic performance, fewer lunch and breakfast occasions, less physical activity, not meeting the recommendations for vegetable and soda consumption as well as hours of television watching. Sufficient sleep (≥9 hours/night) was associated with better grades, meeting the recommended hours of daily television watching and video game playing, being more physically active and increased breakfast and lunch frequency. Percentage of serving free/reduced lunch, soda consumption, breakfast frequency, amount of physical activity, and television watching were associated with academic performance. CONCLUSION: More positive health behaviors generally were associated with better academic performance. Promoting healthy behaviors in schools might improve not only students' health academic performance as well.