Study: Adolescents Can Markedly Increase Sleep Time by Going to Bed Earlier

Going to bed earlier could be a strategy to improve the emotional state of adolescents and their performance in school, according to the study, “Earlier Bedtime and Its Effect on Adolescent Sleep Duration,” in the July 2023 issue of Pediatrics (published online June 12). The study authors analyzed the experiences of two cohorts to determine that adolescents can increase their time asleep by 41 min for each additional hour in bed with an earlier bedtime. For the study, a younger cohort of 77 participants ranging in age from 9.9 to 16.2 years was studied annually for three years. An older cohort of 67 participants ranging in age from 15 to 20.6 years was studied once. As children mature through adolescence, changes in sleep regulation and a shift in their circadian phase enable adolescents to stay awake longer in the evening. However, reduced sleep duration and daytime sleepiness are associated with poor results in school and negative behavioral and mental health consequences. Findings from the study indicate adolescents can overcome the preference to stay up later and increase their sleep duration with earlier bedtimes. Average sleep duration increased by more than an hour as the time in bed increased from 7 to 8.5 hours and by an additional hour with 10 hours in bed. Although sleep duration decreased slightly with age, the ability to increase sleep duration by adopting an earlier bedtime remained constant, according to the study. The authors note additional research is needed to determine how to translate these findings from experiment-controlled sleep schedules to real-world increases in sleep duration.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.