Every semester students reach the time when they’re scurrying to make their schedules for the next semester. As soon as the portals open, thousands of kids are picking the most convenient classes. Convenient for college students usually means later classes so that students can sleep in. There’s the problem, eight am classes are seen to actually be a lot more beneficial than later classes.

In the Huntington Post, many college students and the Health Ambition discuss the benefits of waking up early and getting your classes over with instead of waking up later. In the lecture that Andrew gave us on Thursday, September third, Andrew talked about how correlation does not equal causation. In this article, it discusses how there is a direct correlation between waking up early and getting good grades. Waking up early enhances productivity, produces better diets,  and gives you a better mental health. Students generally feel that waking up early allows them to have more time for naps, homework, movies, etc. In this post, Razma Mogharrab, a second year electrical engineering student, shows that her experience proved to her that waking up at eight for classes got her ready for normal work days which typically start at eight as well. This constant routine made it less difficult to get used to in the long run.

In another post, a study was released in the early fall semester of 2011 by psychology professors at New York’s St. Lawrence University that there was a slight drop in grade point average for each hour a class starts later. Pamela Thatcher told New York Times that per hour the difference equalled .02 of a difference. That can really add up! In another study mentioned in the University of Maryland, studies find a huge correlation with sleeping patterns and eight am classes. Students who have early classes generally tend to sleep early and avoid staying out late and partying. Those who have later classes, in the contrary, tend to party and consume more alcohol therefore causing them to sleep in and still wake up exhausted or even hungover.

On an opposite note, many may argue that waking up early isn’t the right thing to do and just makes you lazy and unproductive in the morning. This topic of whether waking up early to learn is very controversial especially in middle school and high school settings. In one article in The Wall Street Journal, researchers show that delaying the start of a school day by 80 minutes has improved teenage car accidents by 70%; that percentage is huge. Studies prove and increase in attendance records, ability to keep the class awake, and car crashes by delaying school time. Both waking up early and later have it’s benefits.

Putting all of this information together, studies can be done to prove which is essentially bad. Scientists can test learning patterns, attendance records, and grades of both kids who go to school earlier and those who start up later. Many outside variables may come into play but maybe testing the same subject with the same assignments and teachers can improve and cutting out these other variables that may come into play. I find myself personally wondering which is better. My high school started at 7:20 and I found myself struggling to wake up and finish the week off, i took constant naps and always needed a coffee. Now in college, I find myself feeling tired and unproductive when going to an 11:15. My days feel shorter and I feel as if I don’t have enough time to finish everything. It’s a tricky topic with lots of variables that can effect it but overall eight am classes seem like the right thing to do.