Later school start times to promote young people’s mental health and development
This project aims to evaluate whether delaying school start times is a feasible and effective intervention to increase sleep duration in adolescents and thereby promote mental health, academic performance, and other developmental outcomes.
Short sleep duration in young people
During adolescence, biological changes lead to a shift in adolescents’ sleep rhythm towards later bedtimes and wake times, in addition to social factors such as increased social and academic demands and increased screen-time use before bedtime.
Coupled with early school start times (SSTs) that constitute a barrier for sleep, this leads to many adolescents experiencing short sleep duration, especially on school days. Insufficient sleep is a prevalent health problem among adolescents – a study among adolescents aged 12–16 in Stockholm County has shown that 46% of Swedish adolescents slept less than the recommended amount of at least 8 hours per night on school days.
Benefits of delaying school start times
Effective and scalable interventions for increasing sleep duration in adolescents are needed, as inadequate sleep is an important risk factor for a number of problems relating to adolescents mental health, such as depression and suicidal ideation, behavioral problems, and lower academic performance.
The structural intervention of purposefully delaying SSTs has relatively consistently shown to increase adolescents’ sleep duration, according to international studies mainly from the USA. This project aims at investigating the effects of delaying SSTs on sleep and mental health in the Swedish context, as well as whether these effects lead to other ancillary benefits such as improved cognitive and academic performance, lifestyle behaviours, and to explore challenges of implementation and cost-effectiveness.
Pilot study in Region Stockholm
Funded by Region Stockholm, a pilot study will initially investigate the feasibility of implementing delayed SSTs in middle- and high-schools in Region Stockholm. Schools interested in learning more about this project are welcome to get in touch with the project group.