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Teenagers In America Are Getting Less Sleep Than Ever, According To New Study 

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Teenagers living in the United States are sleeping less than ever before, according to a new study from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. The findings were recently shared in publication Pediatrics, and showed a consistent decline in sleep across all age groups considered to be teenage. 

Rachel Widome, lead author on the study and professor at the university’s School of Public Health, said: 

“Some barriers to sleep faced by teens have existed across generations, such as the increased homework and extracurricular demands that come with high school, social pressures to stay up late with peers, and jobs.” 

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“Other issues are new in recent years, such as increasingly ever-present screens and social media as well as recent society-wide stressors such as the pandemic, social unrest, or militarized policing.”

The study also showed demographic gaps in its sleep outcomes. For example, Black and Latino teenagers are becoming even less likely to get adequate sleep when compared to other groups, the same is shown for adolescents whose parents have lower levels of education. 

Older adolescents were seen to have the greatest impact. Sleep time was shown to steadily decline as teenagers got older with both sleep duration and the feeling of getting enough rest dropping significantly with age. 

Researchers in the study utilized data from Monitoring the Future, a long-running national survey that represents over 400,000 US students in grades eight, 10, and 12 over the span of 32 years (1991 to 2023). Participants involved responded to two main questions: how often they slept at least seven hours per night and how often they believed they were getting enough rest. 

Insufficient sleep is a major issue especially for growing teenagers. It’s attributed with daily exhaustion and inhibited functioning while also leading to much larger long-term issues like mental health problems, struggles in school, and chronic illnesses later in adulthood, reports show.

The main root cause that’s being identified is deep and growing feelings of social isolation and burnout. Aim Ideas Lab, a mental health research group that helps connect young people with proper resources, recently published student-led findings that showed about two-thirds of teenagers in California reported experiencing burnout and anxiety. 

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The students also found that about a quarter of students believe only about two days out of the week do they find they have enough time to meet their basic needs like sleeping, eating, and taking care of their personal hygiene. 

Jolie Delja, the executive director of Aim Youth Mental Health, stated that the respondents “connected this directly to relentless academic pressure. They asked for time to slow down, and the chance to learn and practice coping skills like breathing and mindfulness during calm moments, not just crisis ones.”

“Schools and communities do not need to invent entirely new solutions. They need to give students more time and space for the people, activities, and coping tools that already help them manage stress, including getting more sleep.”

Past studies have also revealed that teenagers who do go to bed earlier and/or sleep longer than others tend to have sharper mental skills and do better in school. 

Widome explained that while there may not be one direct nationwide solution to this problem, there are plenty of structural approaches that could help a lot of young people so they can truly take care of themselves, including starting the school day later. 

“Earlier starts are in direct conflict with preset rhythms of adolescent circadian biology,” she said. 

“A nation of sleep-deprived adolescents is not inevitable. We should embrace a culture of sleep, where sleep is actually valued and where we commit to enacting policies and other interventions that promote healthy sleep for everyone.”