My initial reaction to reading about the MPs supporting a petition calling for schools to start an hour later in an attempt to counterbalance sleep deprivation was somewhat cynical. Surely this would naturally lead to everyone - students and teachers - going to bed one hour later than normal, simply pushing the tiredness-in-class epidemic back by an hour?

However, taking into account new research into sleep patterns and body clocks, and considering different sunrise times across the UK, the current one-size-fits-all school start time does begin to look anachronistic. Perhaps schools should become more flexible about when their day begins in order to optimise learning, exam performance and students’ mental and physical health; among other things, lack of sleep has been linked to obesity and depression.

A later start and more alert pupils actually opens up the opportunities for teaching across the whole school day. It is common for teachers to use the first period of the day for low-impact lessons, revision and research rather than introducing a new topic or something which is heavy on the teaching element. Similarly, the last period of the day can be fraught if the pupils are over-tired. But a later start to the day could allow the entire school day to be utilised to the maximum, if it means we are teaching properly rested students.

‘Real educational gain’: MPs support petition calling for later school starting times

Quick read: Later start time not solution for tired teens

More research: New study to look at start times and mental health

Schools’ current 9am (or thereabouts) start is a hangover from the industrialisation of the UK, preparing children for a lifetime of early mornings in the workplace. Today, however, hardly anyone works in industry or starts at 9am (other than teachers, of course). The interesting thing is that most workers start even earlier, and prefer their early start and early finish to the traditional 9-to-5.

That’s because at different stages of our life we wake up at different times and, unfortunately for school timetablers who are considering ringing the school bell an hour later, this might vary by up to two-and-a-half hours between the ages of 10 and 18. The biological alarm clock might ring at 6.30am for a pupil at the upper end of primary school, but a senior secondary student might need another 90 minutes in bed before being able to give of their best.

Could schools consider a staggered start, then, with different year groups starting at incrementally later times? On the plus side, this would reduce rush-hour traffic - but it would also extend the working day of secondary teachers.

Also, schools would have to factor in the three sleep type categories: larks, owls and those who don’t fit neatly into a metaphor based on a breed of bird. Some people are wired to be more alert in the morning, while others become alert later in the day and a rump of people fall somewhere in the middle. Although the current situation suits “larks”, it’s no good for “owls” - but pushing back the first bell will simply shift the disadvantage.

And none of this takes into account the range of sunrise times across the UK. Pupils in Plymouth, for example, start school at the same time as those in Shetland, even though sunrise comes far later for the islanders well past winter, which means they spend more of the year being forced out of bed without natural light to spark them awake.

Moving the start of the school day forward an hour could address some of our pupils’ issues over sleep - but it might just create new problems, too.

Gordon Cairns is a teacher of English in Scotland