Suspicion Confirmed

A more thorough article about the school starting time study can be found at CNN: Falling asleep in class? Blame biology.

This article confirms my suspicion that we're talking about an earlier starting time than is typical at Swedish high school. The Kentucky school's original start time was 7:30 am, and another school in Minneapolis that had tried later start times originally started the school day at 7:15.

The article also suggests that the explanation for the improvement is the one I labeled as number 3 -- a biological factor regarding how teenagers produce melatonin. But that forces me to repeat the fact that the possible applications of this knowledge in Sweden are either a very short school day in the winter, switching from a summer to a winter break, or just accepting the fact that we live in a dark hell hole in the winter where people are tired all day no matter how much they sleep.

On another note, the article makes me feel like I've been cheated out of the proper melatonin/aging pattern. I had no problem getting out of bed for a 6:24 am school start when I was 16, only to later come home for a short break before going to a 6-hour cashiering shift at 3 pm. These days 3 pm is more likely to be the start of nap time, despite the fact that I lethargically ooze out of bed at 8 am most days. Ahh, to be a young whipper-snapper again...