Teenagers need Maine’s support to get more sleep before school hours. Only 20 percent of American teens are getting more than 11 hours of sleep that they need for a healthy life. Obesity and depression are only two ailments that are caused by lack of sleeping.

This is one of the reasons Maine has the highest amount of obesity in America.

Sleep patterns shift toward later times for both waking and sleeping during puberty, which means it’s natural not to go to sleep before 11 p.m. This means that teens get enough sleep or don’t get our work done in time. Someone needs to change the school hours by starting school later and ending it later.

I think that people need to take this issue more seriously and actually do something about it. Some suggestions are starting school later in the morning, or no more than an hour-and-a-half time of homework. I am one of many teens who needs more time to sleep and have no time because of school and activities.

If teens could get more sleep, that would reduce our high percentage of teen obesity and depression and improve our ability to do better in school.

Kelly Philbrook