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The National Sleep Foundation has been saying for some time that it makes a lot of sense to start high school classes later in the morning -- not at 7 a.m., as is the case in many school districts nationwide. Now, some school districts are beginning to respond, and they are seeing good results. Some districts are even saving money by cutting bus runs.

National Public Radio reports:

Most high schools begin their day around 7:30 a.m., which leaves many teenagers nodding off in the morning. In fact, at least 20 percent of high school students fall asleep in class on a typical day. The problem: Teenagers need a lot of sleep -- about nine hours each night, experts say. And most of them aren't getting enough.

To help sleepy teens, some school districts have tried delaying the opening of the high school day. Educational researcher Kyla Wahlstrom, from the University of Minnesota, has been following districts that changed their start times, tracking the effect on schools and students. The Minneapolis school district, for example, changed its start time from 7:20 to 8:40 a.m., giving its 12,000 high schoolers an extra hour and twenty minutes each morning. Wahlstrom says the students have benefited from the change.

"Students reported less depression when there was a later starting time," she says. "And teachers reported that students were more alert and ready for learning. Parents reported that their children were easier to live with because their emotions were more regulated."

Additionally, Wahlstrom found a decrease in the number of students who were dropping out of school or moving from school to school.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 80 school districts around the country have now made the change to start their high schools later. These districts range from large, urban school districts, such as Minneapolis and Denver, to suburban districts, such as Jessamine County in central Kentucky.

Some research says teens are just wired differently than little kids. They stay awake later at night and sleep later into the morning. So, the research says, it is natural for them to be sleepy in early morning classes.

In 2003, a resolution called "From Zzz's to A's" got Congress involved in the debate.

The NSF says:

Evidence suggests that teenagers are indeed seriously sleep-deprived. A recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) found that 60 percent of children under the age of 18 complained of being tired during the day, according to their parents, and 15 percent said they fell asleep at school during the year.

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Cigs Have More Nicotine

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say they have confirmed a study by the state of Massachusetts that found nicotine levels in cigarettes increased 11 percent from 1997 to 2005.

The full report is available here as a PDF.

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Fed Chairman Warns About Aging Population

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress yesterday that an aging America is putting some real pressure on the budget -- pressure that, unrelieved, could leave the country in a serious bind.

Reuters reports:

Left unchecked, the costs of so-called entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, are set to soar as increasing numbers of the baby boom generation retire.

"Dealing with the resulting fiscal strains will pose difficult choices for the Congress, the administration, and the American people," Bernanke said.

"However, if early and meaningful action is not taken, the U.S. economy could be seriously weakened, with future generations bearing much of the cost," he added.

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Al's Morning Multimedia

Every day here on Al's Morning Meeting I feature at least one multimedia project to help you think about how to produce more interesting online projects.

Here is one for the ages. You must watch, even if just for 60 seconds, Art Buchwald's obituary in The New York Times. Recently, the Times has been giving famous people the ability to participate in their own obituaries. Buchwald, naturally, took advantage of the offer.

Here's another project. Thanks to Sean Maroney, a Charles Kuralt Fellow at Voice of America, for passing along this example from MSNBC.com.

MSNBC.com's photoblog combines a picture and description of a news event with the multimedia editor's comments on what makes the picture compelling. Sometimes these comments pose questions to the readers.

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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.

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