School consists of 7 hours and each class period lasts about an hour.

Students are required to get up at 6:30 everyday in order to get ready and be at school on time. This becomes exhausting because some students have sports, work, or events after school. Students spend ¼ of their day in school and more than ¼ for sleep.

There are only 24 hours in the day meaning between sleep and school there is not much room to do anything else. Students are also required to do homework and study for tests when they get home. This means the brain is constantly being worked and students are basically still doing school even when they leave the building.

When students have half days they can learn all the material they need, while still having time for themselves when school is over. I think shortening school hours should be taken into consideration because homework and studying both make up for any lost hours of school. Studies show that healthy sleep, eating and reduced stress all help students academically.

Providing students with more time to themselves can increase their motivation and their happiness levels. School can become very stressful especially when taking advanced classes…even if school was shortened by 2-3 hours it would make a big difference.

Other countries have shorter hours of school and although many believe this will negatively affect students, studies have actually shown that countries with less school hours have better test scores. The extra time a student has in a day can be used to relax, sleep or for other interests they have. These can all be beneficial and help a student become more engaged in school.

School should have shorter hours being this is healthy for students’ mental health. The long hours of school combined with after school activities can become tiring. Students should be allowed to have more rest time because the brain can not function properly without it.