With the start of this spring semester finals, students will now be starting at 7:40, which could effect the students sleep and test performance.

As a freshman, I haven’t had much experience with taking finals. When winter was approaching, I would frequently hear my teachers remind the class, “this might be on the final” or “finals are coming up soon, so you should start studying.” I was worried, to say the least.

My outlook improved when I saw that school would actually start late at 9:15 a.m. and get out at noon. This would allow me to sleep longer and, in the end, improve my mood. Studies from the National Sleep Foundation found that teenagers need at least nine hours of sleep to perform efficiently. Side effects can include poor memory, reduced work efficiency and decreased decision-making skills, which, if I’m not mistaken, you need to take a major test. It also said that 30 percent of teens fall asleep during school without the recommended amount of sleep.

With one semester of finals under my belt, I felt more comfortable with the idea that we would only have half days. I could study before or after taking the finals and get help from teachers. But now, we’ll no longer reap the benefits of a late start during finals.

This semester, finals will start at the regular time of 7:40 a.m. As a result of a bus company change. It was a problem to get our students to school and make sure that the students for the middle schools and elementary schools get to their schools.

Sure, we get out earlier, but does that make up for the sleep that we could be getting? We aren’t just taking a regular test in one of our classes; we are taking tests that count for up to 20 percent or even more of our grades. We should at least get the opportunity to get an adequate amount of sleep.

And a very vital piece of information from sleepeducation.com, is that teens have a biological clock that controls when you feel sleepy and when you feel alert. The only problem with this is that it is set for teens to start falling asleep at 10 p.m. or later. This means that students would be more alert in the afternoon or evening rather than earlier in the morning. But it’s not just the students who will suffer.

Also, teachers are using this extra time before school to hold study sessions to help students cram before finals. What happens to the students who work or have other obligations and can’t come in after school? These students could end up having to stay up all night to study. This is not good for the students, or their grades. And if our school has to change our final schedule, why couldn’t we just make it later in the day?

This would benefit students who either study in the mornings, or students who need the sleep. This would help students to be well rested and prepared to take these finals.