No resources are spared when it comes to conducting studies that might have a positive effect on the life of our children and, naturally, those surrounding them. One of the latest studies assessed the impact of the hour at which school starts on the number of car crashes involving teenagers.

Researchers discovered that moving the start of classes from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. is directly linked to the rate of teen auto accidents. It seems that starting classes just an hour later than usual has reduced rates for teen auto accidents by 16.5%. According to the researchers, the reason for this drop is that teenagers get more sleep and are thus more alert behind the wheel.

It has been scientifically proven that teenagers are predisposed to stay up an hour later than usual every night after puberty, a change brought about by their biological clock. This is in direct conflict with the fact that teenagers have to get up an hour earlier to go to high school, which leads to two hours less of sleep every night. Besides the fact that this has a direct impact on their health as it is, it becomes even more dangerous as teenagers start driving.

People usually blame computers, video games and instant messaging when it comes to finding reasons for why teenagers stay up late, without taking into consideration their biological clock and the lack of coordination between this shift and the hour at which school starts.

The study and its conclusions have been published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, in the issue that was released on December 15th.