A sharp rise in "very short sleep" among US teens

Teenagers across the country are getting less sleep, a researcher from the University of Connecticut reports on March 2nd, 2026, in JAMA. And the problem appears to be societal.

Teens not getting enough sleep has been reported as a problem in the medical literature since at least the turn of the 20th century: a 1905 study in The Lancet of the sleep hours of boys in British boarding schools worried that they were not getting enough sleep due to nighttime lighting, and suggested that "late to bed and early to rise is neither physiological nor wise".

Later on in the 1950s, public concern focused on evening entertainments such as radio and television, keeping teens awake too late. More recently, research has connected too little sleep with overstimulation, mental health problems, accidents, and academic challenges.

But teens are getting even less sleep than they used to, report UConn School of Medicine psychiatric epidemiologist T. Greg Rhee and colleagues in their latest look at the Youth Risk Behavior Survey done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Youth Risk Behavior Survey provides nationally-representative data to examine long-term trends of risk behaviors in teens. Rhee and his colleagues' analysis of the survey data from 2007 to 2023 shows more than 50% of teens are reporting less than 5 hours of sleep a night in the most recent survey, more sleep deprived teens than in any previous survey.

Less than five hours of sleep a night is considered very short sleep, and is associated with emotional regulation issues such as anxiety and depression, poor academic performance or neurocognitive development, and increased risks for obesity and diabetes.

Teen getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night increased across all subgroups in the most recent survey, whether they had risk factors such as depressive thoughts, using controlled substances, or had large amounts of screen time, or no risk factors at all. The number of teens getting sufficient sleep, defined as eight or more hours a night, dropped from more than 30% in 2007 to less than 25% in 2023.

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

More research is needed into which interventions might be effective on the population level. For example, Rhee suggests researchers examine whether reforming academic or extracurricular schedules to reduce evening demands could improve sleep health among teens.