Teenagers should get between eight and ten hours of sleep each night, but 80 percent of them fall short.
The National Sleep Foundation’s annual survey gave teens an “F” grade for practicing healthy sleep behaviors, which affect their mental health.
Good sleep hygiene and mental health are inextricably linked, and each affects the other. Poor sleep typically leads to depressive symptoms, and depression often contributes to poor sleep.
More than a third of teenagers reported feeling depressed, and nearly three-quarters of them said poor sleep worsened their mental health. At the same time, the vast majority of teenagers who slept well reported minimal or no depression symptoms.
John Lopos, executive director of the National Sleep Foundation, said that amid America’s current youth mental health crisis, “it’s important to put more evidence behind the strong connection with sleep, especially in our children.”
Less than a fifth of teenagers get the recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep each night. Those who scored lowest on sleep health and satisfaction were most likely to report feeling depressed
The Sleep Health Index measures sleep health based on three measurements – sleep quality, sleep duration and disturbed sleep. A 90 to 100 corresponds to an ‘A’ grade. A ‘B’ is any score from 80 to 89, while a ‘C’ grade runs from 70 to 79. A ‘D’ grade falls between 60 and 69, while an ‘F’ is anything less than 60
That Sleep Foundation used a series of questionnaires and indices to measure teenagers’ sleep behavior and their mental health, including the Sleep Health Index, which produces scores from 0 to 100 based on sleep quality, sleep duration, and disturbed sleep.
This year marks the first time that the Sleep Health Index (SHI) has been used in teenagers. A 90 to 100 on its 0-100 scale was equivalent to an ‘A’ grade.
A ‘B’ is any score from 80 to 89, while a ‘C’ grade is any score from 70 to 79. A ‘D’ grade falls between 60 and 69, while an ‘F’ is anything less than 60 .
Nineteen percent of teens scored an ‘A’ for sleep health, 27 percent a ‘B’, 25 percent a ‘C’, 14 percent a ‘D’ and 15 percent an ‘F’.
Dr. Zaid Fadul, medical director at online mental health provider Better U, said Fox: ‘It is deeply concerning that such a significant proportion of teenagers are not getting the sleep they need, which undoubtedly affects their academic performance, emotional health and overall quality of life.’
The survey also found that 73 percent of teens said their emotional well-being was negatively affected when they slept less than usual. This includes 15 percent who reported a very negative impact and 58 percent who reported a negative one.
Only 27 percent said there was no negative impact on their emotional well-being when they slept less than usual.
Those who reported being satisfied with their sleep overall were far more likely than teens who were dissatisfied with their sleep to report minimal or no depressive symptoms
The authors of the report said: ‘The SHI is closely associated with depressive symptoms in that when sleep health increased, the level of depressive symptoms decreased.’
The study also measured teenagers’ satisfaction with the amount of sleep they get and its correlation with depressive symptoms.
One in four was somewhat or very dissatisfied with the duration and quality of their sleep.
And those teens were over five times more likely to report moderate to severe depressive symptoms than teens who were satisfied with their sleep.
Poor sleep can lead to poor mental health, but the reverse is also true.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that in 2021, the last year for which complete data is available, 10.2 percent of high school students said they had tried to take their own life in the past year, up from around eight percent in 2019
The CDC also found that 30 percent of high school students said they had poor mental health “most of the time.”
For girls, the figure was even higher – 40 percent.
The mental health crisis is fueled in part by near-constant exposure to social media, on top of the lingering effects of Covid-era lockdowns that forced young people to stay indoors, isolated from their social circles.
The authors of the report said: ‘As the US continues to face a mental health crisis, teenagers are in a particularly unenviable position, facing unique challenges and with unique sleep needs.’