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This just in from Simmons Mattress Gallery: Teenagers need more sleep.

Not really newsworthy? Well a study being published this month in” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine,” has found that delaying the start of the school day by as little as half an hour can increase motivation and decrease depression in teens.

The study was conducted at St. George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island. 201 students were surveyed when the school made the bold decision to push back their start time by thirty minutes.

The lost time was not added to the end of the day, but skimmed off of classroom time and assembly functions.

Both students and teachers were skeptical at first, but the survey found that 55 per cent of the students were able to secure eight hours of sleep or more. This was up from just 16 per cent before the delayed start day.

Another interesting finding, was that the number of students who felt depressed decreased by nearly 20 per cent.

But wouldn’t students be better off going to bed half an hour earlier?

Dr. Judith Owens, one of the specialists involved in the survey, claims that children fall asleep naturally later and later as they grow older.

Starting school later counteracts this natural phenomenon and helps adolescents move towards the optimal time of nine hours of sleep a night.

St. George’s has now made the late start time a permanent fixture.