0993 Impact Of Changing School Start Times On Parent Sleep

Introduction

No studies have previously considered how healthy school start times impact parents. Since parent and child sleep schedules, in particular wake time, are associated, we examined whether changing school start times would impact parent sleep (elementary school [ES] 9:00am to 8:00am, middle school [MS] 8:00am to 8:50am, high school [HS] 7:10am to 8:20am).

Methods

Parents of students (grades K-12) completed online surveys pre-change, one-year, and two-years post-change (2017 n=11,579; 2018 n=8,884; 2019 n=8,796), reporting weekday bedtime and wake time (sleep duration calculated bedtime to wake time). Four PROMIS sleep questions asked about sleep “quality”, feeling “alert” upon waking, feeling “tired” during the day, and “daytime problems” because of sleep. Finally, parents were asked one-year post-change how happy they were about the new school start times.

Results

Parents with only ES students reported earlier bedtimes and wake times (10 and 13 minutes). Parents with >1 HS student woke later (HS only: 22 minutes; MS and HS: 25 minutes; ES and HS: 10 minutes; all 3 levels: 14 minutes) and slept longer (HS only: 19 minutes; MS and HS: 21 minutes; ES and HS: 12 minutes; all 3 levels: 18 minutes), with changes maintained two years. Similarly, parents of only ES students reported no change in sleep quality/impairment. Post-change, more parents with >1 MS or HS student reported good sleep quality (average increase=6.9%), feeling alert (average increase=5.8%), not feeling tired (average increase=5.0%), and having few daytime problems (average increase=4.2%), with benefits maintained two-years post-change. Across levels, parents who were “very happy” about start time changes slept longer than “very unhappy” parents (12-30 minutes); however, across levels, child sleep did not differ between happy and unhappy parents.

Conclusion

This is the first study to examine the impact of changing start times on parents of students in grades K-12. Study results show no significant impact on parents of elementary students. However, similar to students, parents of middle/high school students reported later wake times and increased sleep duration. Notably, parents’ happiness with start time changes was related to parent, but not student, sleep duration.

Support

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action Grant

Relationships between sleep duration and adolescent depression: a conceptual replication

OBJECTIVE

Given the growing concern about research reproducibility, we conceptually replicated a previous analysis of the relationships between adolescent sleep and mental well-being using a new dataset.

METHODS

We conceptually reproduced an earlier analysis (Sleep Health, June 2017) using baseline data from the START Study. START is a longitudinal research study designed to evaluate a natural experiment in delaying high school start times, examining the impact of sleep duration on weight change in adolescents. In both START and the previous study, school day bedtime, wake-up time, and answers to a 6-item depression subscale were self-reported using a survey administered during the school day. Logistic regression models were used to compute the association and 95% confidence intervals between the sleep variables (sleep duration, wake-up time, and bedtime) and a range of outcomes.

RESULTS

In both analyses, greater sleep duration was associated with lower odds (P < .0001) of all 6 indicators of depressive mood. Five of the 6 sleep duration point estimates from the START Study and 4 of the 6 wake-up time point estimates fell within the 95% confidence intervals from the previous analysis. However, the associations between wake-up time and outcomes differed between the 2 studies' analyses.

CONCLUSION

Our findings add strength to the evidence supporting an association between short sleep duration and depression. This issue deserves attention from school districts given the current epidemic of short sleep duration among youth and the potential impact school scheduling can have on teen sleep.