A new study spanning three decades shows American teenagers are sleeping less than ever, and the gap is widest for kids who can least afford it.
Think back to when you were a teenager. Chances are, you stayed up too late and dragged yourself to school half-awake. Now imagine that was true for nearly every teen in America, and getting worse every decade.
That’s exactly what a new study published in the journal Pediatrics found. Researchers tracked the sleep habits of more than 400,000 American teenagers from 1991 to 2023, and the picture isn’t pretty. Teens today sleep less than teens did 30 years ago, less than teens did 10 years ago, and far less than what doctors say they need.
If you have a teenager at home, this one is worth reading.
How Much Sleep Do Teens Actually Need?
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night for teenagers. That’s not a suggestion, it’s what a growing brain and body need to function.
The study used 7 hours as its marker, a lower bar than the recommended 8 to 10. Even at that reduced standard, most teens today don’t clear it.
What the Numbers Show
In the most recent period studied (2021 to 2023), only 37% of 12 and 13-year-olds slept 7 or more hours a night. By age 18 or 19, that number dropped to just 22%.
Let that sink in. Nearly 8 out of 10 older teenagers are regularly getting less than 7 hours of sleep. And those numbers are the worst the researchers have seen in three decades of data.
The drop didn’t happen overnight. Every decade from 1991 to 2023 showed a step down from the one before it. The researchers call this a “Great Sleep Depression,” borrowing from the economic term to describe something that causes widespread, long-term harm.
Why Are Teens Sleeping Less?
Teen sleep has never been simple. Adolescence brings a natural biological shift that pushes the internal clock later, making it harder to fall asleep early. Add early school start times that force kids to wake at 6 a.m., and you’ve already got a conflict.
But something else started happening around 2010: smartphones arrived, and social media exploded. Teens began spending hours on screens after dark, scrolling through content designed to keep them engaged as long as possible. The researchers couldn’t directly prove that phones caused the sleep drop, but they noted the timing lines up closely.
Other factors piled on too. The COVID-19 pandemic reshuffled schedules and increased stress and anxiety. Broader community stressors, like social unrest and economic uncertainty, also crept into teens’ nights.
The Gap Is Growing
Here’s the part of the study that stood out most: the sleep decline wasn’t equal across all groups.
In 1991, Black and white teenagers were equally likely to get 7 or more hours of sleep. By 2023, Black teens were significantly less likely than white teens to reach that mark. The same gap widened for Hispanic and Latino teens.
Teens whose parents didn’t attend college also fell further behind over time. By 2021 to 2023, a teen with at least one college-educated parent was 57% more likely to get 7 or more hours of sleep than a teen whose parents had less education.
This is a health equity issue. Sleep is not just about feeling rested. It’s connected to academic performance, mental health, heart health, and the ability to manage stress. When some kids consistently get less of it, the effects ripple into every part of their lives.
What Does Poor Sleep Actually Do to a Teen?
Short-term, a sleep-deprived teen is more irritable, less focused, and slower to react. They’re more prone to accidents, worse at regulating their emotions, and more likely to struggle in school.
Long-term, the picture gets more serious. Chronic sleep loss in adolescence raises the risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and depression later in life. There’s also evidence that poor sleep habits formed in the teen years tend to stick around into adulthood.
What Can Help?
The researchers point to one change that has real evidence behind it: later school start times.
A growing body of research shows that when middle and high schools push start times to 8:30 a.m. or later, students sleep more and feel better. This isn’t just about convenience. It aligns school schedules with teen biology, and it works at a population scale, helping all students, not just those with supportive home environments.
If you want to advocate for something that could genuinely move the needle for your child’s school, later start times are worth pushing for.
At home, a few things help too. Charging phones outside the bedroom is one of the most effective ways to reduce late-night screen use. Consistent sleep and wake times, even on weekends, help the internal clock settle. And treating sleep as a non-negotiable part of health, not a luxury to cut when life gets busy, sends your teen an important message.
Teens tend to be night owls, and blue light blockers can help them fall asleep earlier. In the morning, a dawn simulator can help them wake up with more alertness by creating a virtual sunset in their room.
The Bottom Line
American teenagers are in the middle of a sleep crisis, and it’s been building for 30 years. The teens who are most disadvantaged in other areas of life are also losing the most sleep, which compounds those disadvantages.
Sleep isn’t passive. It’s when the brain consolidates memory, repairs tissue, and regulates mood. A generation of chronically exhausted teenagers will carry those effects well into adulthood. That’s worth taking seriously, at home, in schools, and in policy.
—Chris Aiken, MD
Director, Psych Partners
Editor in Chief, Carlat Psychiatry Report
