On Monday 11th February there was a parliamentary debate in Westminister Hall on school start times. The debate was in response to the petition School should start at 10am as teenagers are too tired, which has so far attracted over 184,000 signatures. In the debate, a paper on mathematical modelling of sleep cycles
(link here) was entered into the discussion. The paper was co-authored by Anne Skeldon, Andrew Phillips (Harvard Medical School & Monash University, Australia), and Derk-Jan Dijk (Surrey Sleep Research Centre). The paper was referenced by two different MPs in the debate. The second MP also included a number of direct quotes from the paper, emphasizing a few times the role of “mathematical modelling“. The recording and transcript of the debate can be accessed via the petition website linked above. A brief mention of the paper appears at 17:07:45 (with Martyn Day, Linlithgow and East Falkirk, speaking) with a second slightly longer discussion at 17:18:20 by the Minister for School Standards, Nick Gibb.