Educating the Exhausted

Adolescent Sleep and the Struggle for a Later School Start

The battle to align the school day with the science of sleep.

For decades, sleep researchers have reached the same conclusion: adolescents need more sleep than current school schedules allow. Yet across the United States, most middle and high schools continue to start the day at hours that undermine student health, safety, and learning. In Educating the Exhausted, Terra Ziporyn and Amy R. Wolfson explain why evidence alone has not been enough to ensure school hours that allow for sufficient sleep.

The authors recount the development of adolescent sleep research since the 1980s and the long struggle to bring that knowledge into school policy. Scientists, educators, parents, and health professionals often worked in isolation, while school systems remained resistant to change. Early advocacy efforts stalled, local campaigns collapsed, and frustration mounted