HOORAY for the school holidays.

Bye bye to seeing the M8 at the height of rush hour resembling a five-lane car park.

Farewell to those gargantuan 4x4s blocking the bus lanes, and toodle-pip to standing for the duration of the journey whenever I take a peak-time train.

Speaking as someone without children, the school holidays for me always signal seven weeks of commuting bliss.

So when I read about Green Party councillor Dr Nina Baker's call to move the start time of Glasgow's school day to 10am for teenage pupils, it seemed like some kind of utopia.

Those poor wee lambs work hard enough as it is and they need their sleep without being rudely awoken before 8am and taxed with getting their heads around complex algebra or the finer points of the periodic table.

As someone who enjoys 14-hour kips – I didn't earn the nickname Rip Van Ellis for nothing – I, for one, am all for the restorative powers of slumber.

I remember a former colleague saying that when you wake up earlier than usual, a good session of yoga really sets you up for the day.

Pff! So does hugging your duvet ever closer and drifting off blissfully back to the land of nod.

Yet no matter how much I value my shut-eye, and also a hassle-free commute, I just can't agree with Dr Baker's proposal, because of the upset it would cause in the lives of already hard-pushed parents.

It's already a nightmare trying to juggle jobs and childcare without shifting the school start time back an hour for teenagers, while keeping younger pupils the same.

Surely the start time is fairly arbitrary for teenagers – whether it's 9am or 10am can't make too much of a difference. Even teenage bodyclocks can't be that sensitive to a 60-minute differential.

If scientists have proved that adolescent brains aren't as responsive at 9am, it should be up to schools to timetable activities that would address this.

Perhaps a short burst of physical activity, a team game or a quiz on topical issues would get their grey matter going.

If teenagers do indeed need more sleep, then I think they should be encouraged to go to bed earlier, not sleep in for longer.

As for the research that advocates a later start time, when did the interviewees go to bed? And what social media sites were visited or computer games played before lights out?

School isn't just about getting good grades, it's also preparation for the discipline of going out into the big bad world of work.

I can't imagine that many employers would alter their core hours when presented with an argument for the benefits of a long-lie.