When Friday rolls around and their peers are cheering "TGIF," some Tufts students are cursing their alarm clocks and their common sense as they wake up for early morning classes. Though early morning and late-evening classes are typically undesirable for students, some have no option but to enroll in them.
But according several studies - and some students and professors - the rewards of avoiding early classes include more than just sleeping in. According to a report on the Web site for "Inside the Teenage Brain," a PBS Frontline special, "There are times of day that may be better for learning than others ... Depending on whether a student is a night owl or a morning person, class times that force a change in sleeping hours can affect learning drastically."
Psychology lecturer Robert Jampel, who teaches at 8:30 a.m. on Friday mornings, said that while he sees some students having trouble focusing, they are still capable of learning if taught in the right way.
"You get students who look very sleepy at 8:30, but I run a high energy class - I don't lecture," he said. "If you lecture at 8:30 in the morning, students will fall asleep. I like to have discussion classes, and if you get students into a discussion, they wake up, even if it is 8:30."
Assistant biology professor Phillip Starks agreed.
"My class is very interactive," he said. "My students communicate; they're engaged."
Starks teaches Biology 130, "Animal Behavior," at 8:30 a.m. The course has historically been taught at this time, and Starks said that he enjoys teaching in the morning.
"I have a lot of energy in the mornings," he said. "I kept it at this time slot because teaching takes a lot out of me."
For freshman Scott Brinkman, however, an early class means he will have to wake up earlier and have less energy to focus.
"I took Abnormal Psychology from 8:30 to 11:30 on Fridays last semester," he said. "If I hadn't needed the class, I never would have taken that time block. Just because I get up early doesn't mean I like to concentrate first thing in the morning."
"Your brain just isn't on," he added. "It's fine if you go to bed early, but if you have to stay up late, it's awful."
According to the Web site for Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting, most students agree with Brinkman that early-morning learning is undesirable. The site reports that just 10 percent of students say they prefer to learn early in the morning, but that students disagree on what is the best time of day for doing so. Ten percent prefer the late morning, 15 percent prefer the afternoon, 15 percent prefer the evening, and 50 percent have multiple preferences or no preference at all.
Freshman Kara Sarrel takes chemistry at 8:30 a.m. three days a week, including Fridays. The decision to enroll in this time slot was not a choice she made easily.
"I took this class because I'm premed and I have to. Because chem is so early, I didn't want to take it, so I registered for a lot of classes, and then ended up dropping them and taking chemistry instead," she said.
Due to chemistry's unfortunate time slot, Sarrel said she expected she would only make it to about half of its Friday classes.
"There's less chance that if your alarm clock doesn't go off, you will just get up and go," she said. "I didn't make it to chem on Friday the first week because I stayed out late on Thursday night."
Brinkman said the attendance in his early class was much worse than that of his other courses.
"I saw people in my psychology final who I'd never seen in class the entire semester," he said.
However, Starks said he had experienced no such problem.
"My class is about full every time," he said. "I have 90 students enrolled and there are usually 80 to 85. There are few empty seats."
Jampel had a similar outlook.
"Sometimes a number of my students miss classes," Jampel said.
"Would they miss the same number of classes at 12 p.m.? I can't say, since I haven't taught at a different time. However, students in my seminar classes know that I take attendance and that I expect them to be there, so they show up."
According to senior Sarah Bernstein, attendance issues discourage students who can't focus early in the morning from taking early classes.
"The kids who actually show up to early classes are the ones who are going to participate," she said.
Jampel agreed. "I get good participation from them, even if they start sleepy," he said.
According to junior Jen Bokoff, though, the opposite is true: Bokoff has experienced the early morning class drowsiness firsthand.
"People were less likely to speak up in an early morning class," she said.
Although Brinkman and Sarrel had reservations about their early classes, they also found benefits to their new wake-up times.
"I get out of bed and do things with my life," Sarrel said. "I go to the gym after chemistry every Tuesday and Thursday, when last semester I would wake up for [later] classes and do nothing else."
Brinkman has experienced similar benefits.
"It gets classes out of the way, and forces you to get up so you don't sleep away half the day," Brinkman said.
Although students in evening classes might have already rubbed the sleep from their eyes, later times also offer their own set of challenges.
"Late classes are really hard," Bernstein said.
He explained, "I had a class on Tuesdays from six to nine. Six is dinnertime. I wanted to eat and then chill, but instead I was in class."
Brinkman was enrolled in night classes well. He found it especially hard to focus in class after sports practices in the afternoons.
"It's bizarre to go to class at night," he said. "Sometimes after a workout, it's hard to get into school mode, but I'm more alert and willing to talk."
Senior lecturer Marta Rosso-O'Laughlin, who decides when Spanish classes are offered each semester, explained that class scheduling is a matter of choice and resources.
"I try to schedule classes throughout the day, from early morning until the evening, to give students more choices and to utilize the faculty fully," she said in an e-mail.
With the wide range of options, most students can find a schedule that suits them.
"Everyone tries to organize their time around a happy life," Starks said.
