It’s 7:30 in the morning, the sun is just creeping up in the east. Students are trudging through the halls and heading into classes to have their just-waking minds pummeled with heaps of knowledge. Their skulls are still wet and cold from the quick shower they got out of 20 minutes ago, but not even that could scrub the tired out of their eyes.

Must have been a long night.

With responsibilities for homework, sports, clubs, chores and jobs that’s very likely.

The Lawrence Public School district is currently considering recommendations made by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that suggests middle and high schools should start later.

“It’s not something that we will be talking about specifically at the board level, until later this year,” school board president Shannon Kimball said. “Our staff will be looking at it during the year and come back to the board sometime in the spring with a report of what they’ve found and what they recommend.”

The AAP’s new policy says teenagers should be getting eight-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half hours of sleep a night. In contrast, the group said most middle and high school students are getting less than seven. It recommends delaying the start of school until at least 8:30 a.m.

Senior Desiree Hamilton is among the many students who say they need more sleep.

“I’d say I get about four hours of sleep if I’m lucky,” Hamilton said.

Desiree works, gets home late and still has homework to worry about.

This sleep-starving schedule isn’t uncommon for students. The AAP says the easiest way to ensure students are getting more sleep is to start school days later.

A later start could require after-school and extracurricular activities to be pushed back.

“It sounds like a good idea on the front end, because I have smaller kids that are a pain to get up in the morning,” coach Stephanie Magnuson. “But it would definitely push the evening stuff later and make scheduling harder.”