Pediatricians suggest starting school later to let kids sleep

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last updated 8 January 2015

The American Academy of Pediatricians has released a new report suggesting middle and high schools start later to allow young people to get more sleep.

The report, released Monday, found that later start times may be beneficial for both physical and mental health. The AAP studied youth sleep habits for almost four years, and found that less than eight and a half hours of sleep can be a contributing factor for diabetes, obesity, and Gbehavioral issues.

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"The evidence is clearly mounting both in terms of understanding the repercussions that chronic sleep loss has on the health, safety and performance of adolescents, and there is also really solid compelling data supporting the fact that delaying school start times is a very important intervention that can mitigate some of the impact of sleep loss," Dr. Judith Owens, director of sleep medicine at Children's National Medical Center and lead author of the report, told Time.

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