Implementing Our Solution
Influencing the Community
Influencing parents, students, teachers, and the citizens of Basking Ridge are one of the key facets of our decision to push back the school start time and implement better sleep education programs. It is from them that the school board will be able to see the widespread support for this decision as well as the importance of a proper night's sleep. In addition, once they're in agreement, some may be willing to donate to facilitate the transition into our new schedule.
Students
Although many students at Ridge are already on-board with the decision to push back the school start time, many are still trying to adjust to our new schedule. Also, because extracurricular activities are after school, starting and ending later would cause their activities to be later too, and that time that they start their homework. Despite this, the school start time would only move as far back as 8:30 am so the school would end at around 3:15-3:30 pm. Activities would only be an hour later and the students would be able to sleep in for a longer time if they stayed late. In addition, the sleep education curriculum would not affect their after-school activities as it would during their health class. To further this, we want to have a "Student Sleep Week" within one of the weeks that we have a half day on Wednesday.
Parents
Many parents in Basking Ridge, especially those with children in high school have likely seen the late hours their children stay up due to activities, homework, or simply some free time. Therefore, they don't always see their children in their best state of mind as they might over the weekend when they can sleep in. By showcasing our research through the Friday Folders, we can help them better help their kids to get a good night's rest. In addition, it will help their children manage their time so that late nights hardly ever happen again.
Advocacy Through The Media
Teachers
A study conducted by the University of Minnesota in a suburban school district that pushed back the school start time found that students and teachers slept later. They slept for an average of 22 minutes longer and showed less daytime sleepiness as well. With prior studies already showing that teachers get 44 fewer minutes of sleep than the average worker, they too could benefit significantly from our decision. Even though lots of collaboration, planning, and adjustments to various logistical factors must be completed, the potential advantages far outweigh these factors. Besides improved sleep, teachers could have improved well-being, job satisfaction, and professional performance, contributing to a positive teaching environment.
To capitalize on the previous ignorance toward students' lack of sleep, we plan to start a social media campaign on apps such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. There, we will showcase our research, statistics, and recommendations, and gain support for our solution.
In fact, this will be able to potentially help students across the United States that have a school start time as early as 7:35 am. They too can use our research to petition their Board of Education for a later start time and sleep education.
However, not everyone we need to sway is on social media, so we hope to partner with a local news channel and newspaper so that our work can be published. Student lack of sleep has already been brought up by major national news channels including CNN, and FOX News as well as popular news article sites such as New York Times, The Washington Post, and universities. Some of the articles have been linked below as well as their key points.
CNN
New York Times
In a 2021 article, Jane E. Brody writes that an adequate amount of sleep is "helpful for fending off a range of mental and bodily ills."
In June 2022, article author Matt Villano interviews Sleep Education author Lisa L. Lewis. She claims that sleep deprivation "limits students from acquiring information, impedes the retention of the information, and hinders the ability to retrieve that information."
Harvard University
A 2021 article finds that "sleep deprivation can create the same level of cognitive impairment as drinking alcohol."
Funding and Donations
While raising awareness, we will also create fundraisers and collect donations to facilitate the transition to our solution since moving around the bus schedules and similar changes will be expensive. We can set up booths at local events such as Charter Day to collect the money and then donate it to the school board. Other potential fundraisers could be ones Ridge has done before including Krispy Kreme, Chick Fil A, and even mattresses! Partnering with other local restaurants is also on the table because not only would it benefit the students of Ridge, but also the town.