For me, elementary started at 9AM, while middle and high schools started at 7:30AM. The buses would arrive at school a good half an hour before school started (

For me, elementary started at 9AM, while middle and high schools started at 7:30AM. The buses would arrive at school a good half an hour before school started (why, I could not tell you), so in practice you had to be up before 6AM to catch the bus (maybe a bit later if you were less meticulous than I was). And even when you were old enough to drive a car, you couldn't get that much more sleep out of it. I was pretty much continually sleep deprived from 12-18 because of this. The ironic thing is, as an elementary schooler, I would frequently wake up much earlier than I needed to be to watch cartoons/play video games/read/do homework/etc. It was only after hitting puberty that I actually needed the extra sleep time, and that's exactly when they hit you with the schedule change. And people wonder why teenagers are so grumpy these days. As far as I can tell, the reasoning behind this is "parents drive their elementary school-aged kids to school and need the extra time." The vast majority of kids, myself included, rode the bus from kindergarten onwards, so I guess this is just another case where the upper crust got to fuck everyone else over for the sake of their own convenience. EDIT: The other half was the school-run extracurriculars that started in middle school. I remember an attempt to start our high school later being shot down; the athletes didn't want to stay any later than they already were, and the sports coaches didn't want to lose any practice time. Clearly football is more important than the health and education of the average student.