More than half of American teens now sleep less than five hours a night

The number is stark: more than half of American teenagers are now sleeping fewer than five hours a night. That figure, drawn from the most recent CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, represents the worst teen sleep data the survey has ever recorded.

A problem older than smartphones

Concerns about adolescent sleep deprivation are not new. A 1905 study in The Lancet fretted about boys in British boarding schools staying up too late because of nighttime lighting. In the 1950s, the culprit was radio and television. Today, the list of suspects has grown to include social media, academic pressure, extracurricular demands, and screen-saturated bedrooms. But the trend line is moving in only one direction.

T. Greg Rhee, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, led the analysis of Youth Risk Behavior Survey data collected between 2007 and 2023. The survey provides nationally representative snapshots of risk behaviors among high school students, making it one of the most reliable instruments for tracking population-level trends over time.

The numbers across 16 years

The findings, published in JAMA, paint a consistent picture of decline. In 2007, more than 30% of surveyed teens reported getting the recommended eight or more hours of sleep per night. By 2023, that figure had dropped below 25%. Meanwhile, the proportion reporting fewer than five hours -- classified as very short sleep -- climbed to exceed 50% in the latest survey cycle.

What makes the data particularly concerning is the universality of the decline. Sleep loss increased across every subgroup the researchers examined: teens with depressive symptoms, those using controlled substances, heavy screen users, and those with none of these risk factors. The deterioration is not confined to vulnerable populations. It is a population-wide shift.

What very short sleep does to a developing brain

Fewer than five hours of sleep per night falls well below what adolescent physiology requires. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends eight to ten hours for teenagers, whose brains are still undergoing critical development in areas governing impulse control, emotional regulation, and memory consolidation.

Very short sleep in teens is associated with anxiety and depression, impaired emotional regulation, poorer academic performance, and stunted neurocognitive development. It also raises the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. These are not minor inconveniences -- they are conditions that can alter the trajectory of a young person's life.

The relationship between sleep and mental health runs in both directions. Depression disrupts sleep, and sleep deprivation worsens depression. But Rhee's analysis found that the decline in sleep duration was not explained solely by mental health problems. Even teens without depressive thoughts, substance use, or excessive screen time reported sleeping less than in previous surveys.

A societal problem, not just a personal one

That distinction matters. If every subgroup is getting less sleep regardless of individual risk factors, the forces driving the change are likely structural rather than personal. School start times, academic calendars, extracurricular scheduling, and the ambient pressure of a culture that treats busyness as a virtue all contribute to an environment where adequate sleep is difficult to achieve even for motivated, well-adjusted teenagers.

"These trends highlight the need for population-level interventions among teens," Rhee and colleagues wrote. "For example, later school start times can help with longer sleep, which may lead to better mental health outcomes and greater academic engagement."

Later school start times have been one of the most studied interventions. California became the first state to mandate later start times for middle and high schools in 2022, and early data has shown modest improvements in sleep duration. But adoption has been slow elsewhere, hampered by logistical concerns including bus schedules, after-school activities, and parent work hours.

What might actually help

Rhee suggests that researchers should look beyond school start times to other structural changes. Reforming academic or extracurricular schedules to reduce evening demands -- late practices, heavy homework loads, test preparation -- could also improve sleep outcomes. The goal would be to change the environment rather than asking individual teens to sleep better within a system that makes it nearly impossible.

The study does not propose specific policy solutions, and the researchers acknowledge that more work is needed to identify which population-level interventions would be most effective. But the direction of the evidence is clear: teen sleep deprivation is getting worse, it is affecting everyone, and individual-level advice to "put down the phone" is not going to fix it.

One in 1905 might have hoped that a century of medical knowledge would have solved the adolescent sleep problem. Instead, we have more data confirming the same concern -- and considerably less sleep.