Classes from 8:30 in the morning give high school students a headache!

Starting at 8:30 it is often very early. It is also too early for teens with migraines. American researchers from the University of San Francisco suggest that our natural biological clocks tend toward late bedtime habits, adding that starting school early goes against this reality. They published the results of their study in Journal of Head and Face Pain November 25.

1.3 additional migraine days per month

“Evidence suggests there is a relationship between sleep and migraines, said Amy Gelfand, a neurologist and first author of the study. Getting enough sleep and maintaining a regular sleep schedule can reduce the frequency of migraines. “In the children’s hospital where he works, the neurologist notes that 8 to 12 percent of teens suffer from headaches. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine advises teens to sleep 8 to 10 hours a night. Because of the delay. of the circadian clock of adolescents, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools do not start before 8:30 am while in the United States only 18% of these institutions adhere to this recommendation.

The researchers found that teens who started classes before 8:30 am suffered an average of 7.7 days of headaches per month. That’s almost three more migraine days than those whose start at school is later. To arrive at these results, the researchers analyzed data from 509 students who started school before 8:30 and 503 who started school after 8:30. Both groups averaged 24 minutes commute to school, with the first starting group waking up at 6:25 am to start an average of 8:00 am The later starting group wakes up at 7:11 am and starts school on average at 8:45 am. The difference between the two groups narrowed to 7.1 and 5.8 days when researchers adjusted for risk factors such as insufficient sleep, skipping breakfast, sex, volume of homework, and use of migraine medications. “However, the 1.3-day difference between the two groups remained significant.“Amy Gelfand continues.

In California, no classes before 8:30 am.

“The magnitude of effect size in this study is similar to that seen in the migraine prevention drug studies., a noted Amy Gelfand. For example, in a topiramate test [un médicament épileptique, NDLR] in boys 12 to 17 years of age with episodic migraines, those who received the drug had an average of two migraine days in the past month, compared with 3.5 migraine days for those taking placebo, a difference 1.5 day. “

In 2019, California became the first U.S. state to legislate so that schools don’t start before 8:30 am, a change that will be implemented in the 2022-2023 school year. “The current pandemic has led to large-scale changes in the way students attend schoolsAmy Gelfand added. As we think back to what a typical school day looks like, maybe it’s time to change the school start time too.. “

In France in recent years many voices have been raised to delay the first lessons of the day and adapt to the rhythms of adolescents. In 2019, Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region, proposed not starting high school students before 9am. A desire shared by the chronobiologist Claire Leconte who adds that “it is in fact the last phase of sleep which is the most important in a night “, in an interview with New Obs in January 2019.

I ask@jmblanquerstart a regional experiment at the beginning of the 2019 school year: start all high school classes at 9:00 This will be good for the learning and health of our 500,000 high school students and will desaturate transport https: // t .co / aqkuZ9Fif6 via @Le_Figaro

– Valérie Pécresse (@vpecresse) January 3, 2019