Letting teenagers sleep a little longer, and start school a little later, would add over $80 billion to the U.S. economy in a decade, a new study finds.
In the RAND Corporation report, "Later school start times in the U.S.: An economic analysis," an 8:30 a.m. or later start to the school day would reduce the number of fatal car crashes and help youngsters do better — hiking the chances they'll graduate and go to college.
"Delaying school start times is a cost-effective, population-level strategy that could have a significant impact on public health and the U.S. economy," the report researchers wrote.
"From a policy perspective, these findings are crucial as they demonstrate that significant economic gains resulting from the delay in [school start times] accrue over a relatively short period of time following the adoption of the policy shift."
The result, the researchers assert, would boost the U.S. economy by $83 billion within a decade.
"A small change could result in big economic benefits over a short period of time for the U.S.," Marco Hafner, a senior economist at RAND Corporation’s European affiliate RAND Europe, said in a statement.
According to the report, an additional hour of sleep every night increases the probability that a student will graduate from high school and attend college. A 2011 Brookings Institution study found a one-hour delay in school start times would lead to a $175,000 increase in a person's lifetime earnings.
But according to the Miami Herald, a test of the later start times in local schools didn't translate into more sleep for the teens surveyed; almost 30 percent of the youngsters admitted they merely wound up going to bed later every night.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.