ROCHESTER, N.Y. — High school start times vary for districts across the country between 7-9:30 a.m. That’s an early wake-up call for anyone, but teenagers are especially affected.

“I get on the bus at like, 6:40, but I gotta leave at like 6:30 because my bus stops down the street,” said Mason White, a junior at Fairport High School.

He and his sister, Emma White, are waiting to get on the bus before the sun comes up every morning for most of the school year.

“A lot of people I know go to sleep at like 1:30 a.m. and get up four hours later. I just don't know how to do it,” Mason explained. “Waking up every morning. It's a grind. Like it's ... I have to almost shine a flashlight on my phone to my face. It’s really, really difficult.”

“Literally every day. I hate waking up. It takes me at least 15 minutes to get up in the morning,” Emma, a freshman in the district, added.

Fortunately, they’ve adapted to the early wakeup calls by preparing for school the night before. Making their lunches, finishing their homework and picking out their outfits sound like easy tasks to do in the evening, but that’s after the two high schoolers get home from their extracurricular activities and part-time jobs. They say they often fall asleep right before midnight because there’s still plenty to do to get ahead of their before-dawn school bus pick-up times.

“Going from the summer to the beginning of the school year, and especially now that it's getting a little darker, like it's definitely catching up with them. And they clearly seem a lot more fatigued [and] harder to get up in the morning. Especially when they have activities til sometimes 9 or 10 at night. And then to be on the bus at 6:30, they're tired and kind of cranky,” their mom, Sarah Pantaleo, admitted.

These early school start times are having negative effects on teenagers' health, according to sleep professionals at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“Because of the changes that teenagers go through, they have after puberty, their brain changes in certain ways. And those changes make it harder for them to get to sleep at an earlier time,” Laura Tomaselli, a medical doctor at the Pediatric Sleep Center, explained. “So their brain isn't ready to get to sleep until 11 or later sometimes. And then when we have them getting up so early for school, it shortens the amount of sleep they get.”

“There's really compelling research that shows if we're not getting, you know, teens aren't getting enough sleep, they're more at risk for developing mental health challenges. And this is already during a time of a lot of changes during puberty where it's also another risk for our teens. And by allowing them to have more opportunity for sleep, I'm hopeful that can really have a benefit on mental health,” added Emily Cromwell, a pediatric psychologist at the Pediatric Sleep Center.

Teenagers' sleep schedules are one of the reasons the Fairport Central School District's Board of Education has voted to transition school start times from 7:22 a.m. to 9 a.m. for the 2026-2027 school year.

“I like it because most people in my grade like go to bed extremely late and wake up super early. That's not really good for anyone. So we can still go to bed really late, but we'll get more sleep. And it's easier to wake up in the morning,” the freshman said.

She’ll be a junior when the change will officially take place. As for her older brother, he’ll miss out, but despite the challenges, White says he prefers the earlier start times.

“I do like having school get out early. That is pretty nice,” he explained, “I work out, I have work. I have maybe some basketball practices, sometimes. Yeah, just gotta juggle back and forth. And if school ended later, I would have to do it all in more of a time frame.”

As a freshman, White says as long as she has at least one study hall, she’s OK with the later start times because she’ll still have time in school to get her work done.

“As a working mom, it makes it a little easier for me. You know, my job doesn't end until 4:40, 5:05 p.m. at night. So, you know, having them start practices at 3:30 and for every single day, it makes it hard to get them everywhere they need to go. So I think it'll be a little easier for me personally,” Pantaleo said.

“When the change is made, teenagers do get more sleep. I know a lot of people are concerned that we're going to do all this and make these changes, and yet the teenagers are still going to be staying up late. They're still not going to be getting enough sleep. But that's actually not what happens,” Tomaselli explained. “The data tells us that, they're getting on average, about 30 minutes more sleep, sometimes even more in particular for the high schoolers, getting even more sleep than that when they delay the start time.”

New York does have a bill pending in the Senate that would require public schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. That’s something nine other states have already done, and New York is currently one of 13 states awaiting that legislation across the country.

Another New York school district in the Albany area, the Guilderland Central School District, made the change to later school start times for its 2022-2023 school year. However, it reverted back for the following year.

In a statement, it said:

“The district changed its start times for the 2022-23 school year; however, due to factors beyond its control, changed the start times back for the 2023-24 school year. These factors were primarily traffic and the geography of the district, which caused many buses to be late.”

In the meantime, sleep experts say consistency is key to keeping high schoolers healthy, regardless of the early school start times.

“Have a plan, have a bedtime, have a routine that you do every night before going to bed. Have a consistent bedtime. Try to have it seven nights per week. I know that's going to be harder for teenagers than for younger kids. Have a consistent wake-up time. A consistent wake-up time is even more important than a consistent bedtime because that sets your clock for the day, gets you going, and so working towards making sure that they know that adjustments will need to be made and things won't change overnight,” Tomaselli said.