American teens still aren’t getting enough sleep: According to the most recent report from the CDC, more than three-fourths of US high schoolers get less than eight hours of sleep on school nights.
That’s at a near-record low since the CDC started tracking teen sleep in 2007, and it has profound implications for teen health and well-being. While there are several factors that cut into teens’ sleep, there are also a number of ways to help.
How Many Hours of Sleep Do Teens Need
Although sleep needs gradually decline as kids get older, teens still need more sleep than adults do. For 14 to 17-year-olds, the recommendation is eight to 10 hours; younger teens (up to age 14) should get 11 to 13 hours of nightly sleep.
Why teen sleep matters
Compared to adults, teens are more sensitive to sleep loss: Without a fully mature prefrontal cortex to help dampen the effects of sleep deprivation, they’re more prone to intense emotions and risky behaviors. As a result, sleep-deprived teens have a higher risk for substance use and car crashes and are even more susceptible to peer pressure.
Being sleep-deprived also exacerbates mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality. There’s also a dose-response relationship between sleep loss and teen suicide, with each hour of sleep loss linked to an increased risk for both suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
“The evidence is really quite compelling that poor sleep and worse mental health are bidirectionally related in youth,” says Tori Van Dyk, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Loma Linda University. “If we optimize sleep in teens, we may be able to prevent the development or exacerbation of mental health problems. And then similarly, if we treat mental health problems, we hope to see that some sleep problems will improve as well. I really don’t think that we can consider one without the other.”
For teens with ADHD, sleep also has a bidirectional effect, Van Dyk notes. “In experimental studies, short sleep causes an increase in ADHD-like symptoms such as inattention and inhibitory control, both in teens with and without ADHD,” she points out. “So, sleep deprivation may look like ADHD even for teens who don’t actually have the disorder.”
Teen sleep deprivation has implications in the classroom, too, dragging down test scores, attendance, and even graduation rates. Teens who are sleep-deprived have a harder time learning new information as well as retaining that knowledge, which isn’t surprising given the role that sleep plays in memory consolidation.
For teen athletes, sleep loss can really impact performance. Not getting enough sleep affects everything from coordination to response time to the likelihood of getting injured, including increasing the risk of sustaining a concussion. Moreover, sleep also plays a key role in healing, so being sleep-deprived while recovering from an injury can delay the process.
The top reasons why teens are sleep-deprived
Although it can be tempting to assume teens are sleep-deprived because they’re staying up too late at night and just don’t want to get out of bed in the morning, the reality is far more complex.
Sleep timing
When kids hit puberty, their entire sleep schedule shifts later: They no longer feel sleepy as early as they used to, nor are they ready to wake up as early in the morning. This change in their sleep timing is due to a circadian rhythm shift that moves their internal body clocks to a later sleep-wake schedule.
Melatonin, which prompts feelings of sleepiness, begins to release later at night and doesn’t subside as early in the morning as it used to. This means that teens aren’t feeling sleepy until about 11 p.m. and also aren’t ready to awaken until later in the morning.
School start times
Unfortunately, this sleep schedule is a particularly poor fit for early school start times, given their link to teen sleep loss. Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2014 policy statement recommending start times of 8:30 a.m. or later, early start times are the norm at the majority of US high schools. In fact, the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that fewer than 30% of public high schools in this country meet the guidelines. And far too many schools are still starting much earlier than recommended, with nearly 9% of high schools starting before 7:30 a.m.
When schools start this early, it makes it difficult — if not impossible — for teens to obtain the eight to 10 hours of sleep they need for optimal functioning. While numerous districts and cities around the country have already pushed back their secondary school start times, the change is also happening at the state level: California was the first state in the country to pass a law setting minimum allowed start times for middle and high schools, and Florida recently passed a similar law (California’s law went into effect in 2022, and Florida’s law goes into effect in 2026). Similar legislation is also being considered in other states.
Overscheduling
Of course, the hour teens go to bed also affects how much sleep they get. And for many teens, the combination of homework, extracurricular activities, jobs, and social pursuits eats into the time they’re able to get sufficient sleep. If the cumulative impact of these time commitments is regularly cutting into sleep time, it may make sense to pare down: Teens need at least an eight-to-ten-hour window in order to have the opportunity to get enough sleep.
Tech and social media use
The internet has permeated all aspects of our teens’ lives, from completing school assignments to staying in contact with friends. However, all of this tech time. In addition to cutting into sleep time, teens’ online time is often stimulating and engaging, which is the opposite of what they need when they’re trying to wind down for bed. The devices themselves emit blue light, which can delay the release of melatonin and prompt teens to feel alert.
Because of this, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no tech use one hour before bedtime. Another recommended strategy: getting devices out of bedrooms at night and charging them in a central location, such as the kitchen.
Additional ways to help teens get more sleep
Morning moves
Waking in the pre-dawn hours due to early school start times and/or winter sunrise times is no easy feat, but there are strategies that can help. Because light helps cue alertness, a sunrise alarm clock that gradually brightens as wake time approaches can be a huge benefit. Opening the curtains or turning on bright lights will also help teens feel more awake.
What isn’t helpful is hitting the snooze button to try to catch a few more Zzz’s. Not only are the additional minutes of sleep not enough to make a meaningful difference, but the additional time will also be more fragmented — and less restorative — than simply spending that time asleep.
Naps
It can be tempting to take a nap during the day, but teens who nap too long or too late in the day may find it harder to fall asleep that night. Moreover, naps should be thought of as more of a stop-gap strategy. “Naps can be helpful in the very short term by improving some aspects of functioning immediately after the nap.” Van Dyk explains. “However, napping during the day and getting shorter sleep at night is really not the same as consistently getting the right amount of sleep at night, without naps.”
Consistency or social jet lag
When teens don’t get enough sleep during the week, it’s tempting to try to make up for lost time by sleeping late on the weekends. But it’s a strategy that can backfire, making it hard to get to bed at a reasonable hour once Sunday night rolls around. Teens whose weekend sleep varies dramatically compared to their sleep during the week are likely to experience social jet lag – a timing mismatch that’s akin to actual jet lag.
“We see negative consequences across the board related to social jet lag,” Van Dyk says. “We know that when teens go to bed and wake up at different times each day, or across the week – weekdays and weekends – they can develop circadian misalignment.”
Instead, Van Dyk recommends that teens try to stick to a more regular schedule. “Going to bed and waking up at about the same time is important,” she says. And when teens who aren’t getting enough sleep during the week do want to catch up a bit on weekends? “If teens aren’t having difficulties sleeping and it’s just a matter of sleep duration and insufficient sleep, I would recommend not varying by more than about an hour or two on the weekends,” she says.
Parents who are concerned that their teens may have insomnia (having trouble sleeping at least three nights a week for at least three months) or are regularly sleeping too many hours may want to consult a healthcare provider.
Beds are for sleeping, and other best practices
For teens who don’t have clinical sleep disorders, however, paying attention to sleep hygiene is the best approach, Van Dyk says. In addition to following best practices such as limiting screen time and encouraging consistency, teens should avoid spending a lot of time in bed during their waking hours. “When teens stay in bed for a long period of time without sleeping, whether they’re watching TV, looking at social media or doing homework, they start to associate the bed with arousal as opposed to associating the bed with sleep,” Van Dyk explains.
“If you’re going to do homework or look at social media, or chat with friends,” she says, “do that in a different place outside of the bed so that your brain and your body know your bed is really only for sleep.”
