More teenagers in the United States are sleeping short periods of time each night, according to a new study published on March 2 by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Among high school students in America, more reported sleeping five or fewer hours, researchers found when analyzing data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The percentage of people sleeping that long increased from 15.8 percent in 2007 to 23 percent in 2023, Taeho Greg Rhee, an associate professor in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, and co-authors said.
That was the reason that more students reported insufficient sleep, 76.8 percent, in 2023, compared to 68.9 percent in 2007.
Researchers deemed any number of hours of sleep under eight per night to be insufficient.
They crunched numbers from 120,950 students.
The percentage of students reporting six or seven hours of sleep each night remained about the same, while fewer students reported getting eight or more hours per night.
“These findings show a broad increase in insufficient sleep across all demographic groups, driven largely by increasing reports of very short sleep,” the authors said.
Females were slightly more likely to experience insufficient sleep. Seniors were much more likely to sleep less than freshmen.
Students marking down lower sleep times were more likely to report experiencing symptoms of depression and/or suicidal thoughts, and spending hours during the day on social media and video games.
Limitations of the paper include the lack of some potential contributors, such as family conflicts, the researchers said. They reported no conflicts of interest.
Rhee and co-authors said the trends highlight the need for population-level responses, such as starting school later.
Randi Bates, an editorial fellow with the journal, and its deputy editor, Dr. Tracy Lieu, said in a commentary that adjusting school start times could help address the problem. They also suggested teens avoid screen time for two hours before going to bed.
A separate study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in February, involving hundreds of students, found that delaying the time school starts was associated with students waking up later and sleeping longer on school days.
“When offered the choice to start school later, students took it, resulting in measurable improvements in sleep, health, and academic outcomes,” the researchers behind that paper, who are based in Switzerland, wrote. “Therefore, flexible school schedules may offer an effective way to address adolescent sleep deficits.”
Listed limitations included the study’s limited age range, primarily ages 13 to 15. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
