SLEEP Goal:To increase awareness of teen sleep needs and to change Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) middle and high school start times to later in the morning. Research shows that later start times correspond with teen sleep needs and improve health, quality of life, and school performance.

The effort to change Fairfax County Public School start times by parents concerned about the health impact of too-early high school start times on adolescent students has been going on for at least 10 years. SLEEP was started in January 2004 by Sandy Evans and Phyllis Payne. Momentum is building for a change. We need your continuing support to finally accomplish the goal of so many parents for so long. To learn more about the history of this issue in Fairfax, please visit the History page.

News Updates

September 2010 Announcement

Fueled by accumulating research showing that adolescent bodies are designed to sleep late and that delaying school start times — even by just 30 minutes — makes a huge difference in how well teens feel and perform, an increasing number of schools around the country are ringing morning bells later than they used to. Read more here:

SLEEP needs your help to continue to fight for reasonable and healthy bell schedules that maintain after-school sports and extra-curricular activities. If our neighbors can find a way, Fairfax can find a way to do this for our children from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Transitioning from summer to school:
To help your child get their sleep schedule back on track before school starts, the National Sleep Foundation provides coping strategies children may use to try to minimize their sleep loss as they adjust their body clocks to school schedules this fall. Teens in Fairfax may find these strategies still leave them significantly short of the recommended 9 hours of sleep per night due to the very early bus pick-up times.

Experts advise teens who are exhausted by very early school start times to:

Talk to your children about sleep. Ask them what time they are falling asleep. There is a significant gap between the amount of time children sleep and the amount of time parents think our children are sleeping. Most teens need about 9 hours per night. If your teen feels very sleepy during the day, talk to your child's doctor about other strategies to help cope with the Fairfax schedule.

Please join the Official SLEEP in Fairfax County Facebook group.

NSF's Great American Sleep Challenge

7 Days of Sleep and Alertness

SLEEP on the CBS Morning Show-click here

At the February 2, 2007 budget hearing. Katarina Berger, Lee Pyramid Coordinator, provided a light moment with the poem, Revise the Rule which some School Board members promisedto post in their offices as inspiration.

New web page design thanks to Kelly Midura, a SLEEP volunteer.

Contact SLEEP at sleep@sleepinfairfax.org.