Don’t Just Blame Social Media for Kids’ Poor Mental Health—Blame a Lack of Sleep
Education Week September 9, 2024
Filed in: Health & Wellbeing | Education | Mental Health | Digital Tech
On September 4, 2024, the Co-Director of the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent, Andrew Fuligni, spoke to EducationWeek reporters at a webinar and media briefing about the importance of sleep in improving adolescent mental health. At the briefing, Fuligni explained that there is a rich body of research showing that poor sleep leads to poor mental health, and it’s a link that is getting overlooked in the current frenzy over cellphones and social media.
Recent News
April 16, 2025
“The evidence linking sleep and mental health is a lot tighter, more causal, than the evidence for social media and mental health,” Co-Executive Director Andrew Fuligni explains in a new Associated Press article about the importance of promoting healthy sleep during adolescence.
April 16, 2025
NSCA member Jacqueline Nesi is interviewed in a New York Times op-ed about how AI chatbots might affect young people by taking key peer roles, and why we should consider regulation backed by lawmakers and research. In the article, Nesi suggests that more research is needed on how these new technologies affect young people specifically, and these results may help us better tailor and scaffold their experiences with them.
back to top