There’s a movement afoot nationally for school districts to recognize how sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on teenage brains, bodies and behavior.

Seattle Public Schools is one of the largest districts to embrace later start times – pushing high school and most middle school start times to 8:45 a.m. last year, with plans to shift to 9 a.m. this year, according to Chalkbeat Colorado, the nonprofit news organization covering education issues.

Advocates cite a growing scientific consensus, including research from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, showing that later starting times for schools reduce the negative impacts of sleep deprivation. Adolescents’ brains are hard-wired to not sleep before 11 p.m., according to Dr. Wendy Troxel, a sleep expert who has become the face of the movement via her Ted Talk, which describes school start times as the pressing public policy issue of our time.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.