UCLA CDA Co-Executive Directors, Adriana Galván and Andrew Fuligni, spoke with PBS NewsHour’s William Brangham about why sleep is so important to youth mental health.
How Teenagers’ Lack of Sleep is Taking a Toll on Their Mental Health
How Teenagers’ Lack of Sleep is Taking a Toll on Their Mental Health
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This fact sheet gives an overview of adolescent brain development and explains how access to resources, opportunities, and meaningful relationships during adolescence can build connections within our brains and with the world around us that support us into adulthood.
Brain development during adolescence is fundamentally a story of connections.
Around age 9 or 10, hormonal changes kick off a period of intense learning and development, when brain cells form, strengthen, and streamline connections in response to our experiences more rapidly than in any period of life after early childhood.
Activity increases especially in the brain networks that propel us to explore the world, learn from our mistakes, and connect with others in new ways. In turn, these new experiences prompt our brain cells to connect with other neurons in ways that help us adapt to new events and new information. These neural connections become stronger the more we use them, while unused connections are pruned away, helping the brain become more efficient at acquiring and mastering new skills and new ways of thinking.
This brain-building learning happens through direct experiences in our environments and interactive, responsive relationships—with our families and peers, in our classrooms and neighborhoods, in community activities, and even online. The resources, opportunities, and experiences we as adults provide in and out of school can help young people’s brains build the extensive networks of connections that will manage the complex knowledge and behaviors needed to navigate adulthood.
Learning by Exploring the World Around Us
One of the networks that changes significantly with the increase in hormones and dopamine at the beginning of puberty is the “reward system” in our brain. Heightened activity in this system increases the feeling of reward we get from exploring the world, taking risks, and learning from the results.
Meanwhile, the network of brain regions that make up the “social brain” also changes during adolescence. These changes help us tune into social and emotional cues, like facial expressions or social rejection and approval, and increase our desire to earn respect and contribute to others. It also enables us to learn the nuances of changing social contexts in ways that help prepare us for adult relationships.
The prefrontal cortex (the region of the brain that orchestrates critical thinking and behavioral control) undergoes its most rapid period of development during adolescence. It builds on many other systems within the brain to manage our responses to the flood of new information and intensifying emotions. Engaging with other people and our environment and learning from our successes and our mistakes, known as “action-based learning,” helps shape the prefrontal cortex by strengthening the connections within it and between it and other brain networks. We learn through repeated practice—which includes trying and sometimes failing—what is adaptive and appropriate in different situations and how to guide our behavior accordingly, in ways that equip us to pursue new forward-looking goals.
When adults provide youth with opportunities to try new things, to practice navigating emotions, and to learn from failures along the way, it helps build the brain connections that we all need to grow into healthy, thriving adults.
Policies, Experiences, and Mindsets Shape the Connecting Brain
Although we can continue to learn new skills and behaviors as adults, the adaptability of the brain during adolescence means that these connections are much more likely to form quickly in response to experiences. The extent of these changes make the adolescent years a critical window when investments in the right policies and programs for youth can shape long-term positive development.
Likewise, this makes the adolescent years a time when negative experiences including racism, other forms of discrimination, poverty, or abuse can create steeper hills for young people to climb toward a healthy adulthood. When adults ensure that all young people, especially those who have experienced earlier adversity, have what they need along their journey, they can build the skills and capacities they need to thrive as adults. This includes opportunities to explore and take healthy risks, to connect with and contribute to those around us, to make decisions and learn from the outcomes, to develop a healthy sense of identity, and to rely on support from parents or other caring adults.
Understanding how and why the brain develops during adolescence lets us provide the support young people need to build healthy connections—in their world and within their brains—that will help our youth and our communities thrive.
Key Developmental Needs of Adolescence
Fact sheet | Education | Community Engagement | Mental Health | Out-of-School Time | Foster Care | Juvenile Justice
This fact sheet gives a summary of six key developmental needs that research tells us are critical to healthy development during our adolescent years.
Research into adolescent development points to core developmental needs during our adolescent years. These key developmental needs of adolescence include:
Explore the world and test out new ideas and experiences
Heightened activity in the “reward center” of our brain during adolescence increases our motivation to try new things and explore the world, which help us discover who we are, expand our skills, and ultimately leave the familiarity of home. Policies and programs that provide opportunities for healthy risk taking help youth channel these tendencies in ways that support positive development.
Developing meaning and purpose through contribution
During adolescence, we’re increasingly able to support others in deeper, more meaningful ways than when we were younger. Experiences in which we make a positive difference help us develop a sense of meaning and purpose, which support wellbeing, academic success, and resilience. Policies and programs should ensure all young people have opportunities to contribute.
Build decision making and emotional regulation skills
Our cognitive and emotional abilities mature during adolescence in ways that help us develop new skills related to making good decisions and navigating our emotions. We continue to build these skills as we practice in real-world situations with support to make and learn from mistakes. Supportive adults should provide them with opportunities for increasing agency in decisions that impact their lives.
Support from Parents and Other Caring Adults
Secure and supportive relationships with caring adults when we’re adolescents are essential to our physical and mental health, helping us build resilience, develop a positive sense of self, and form a positive racial and ethnic identity. Programs and policies can help prioritize strong family bonds and provide mentors for youth.
Developing Values, Goals, & Identity
During adolescence, our relationships, experiences, and the messages we receive about our racial, gender, and other identities help us form a positive sense of identity and belonging. Policies and programs that provide opportunities to explore roles and activities can help youth discover what they value, who they are, and who they want to become.
Find a respected role among peers and adults
Changes in our brain and our social settings during adolescence increase our social awareness and motivate us to learn the skills we need for the more complex social demands of adulthood. These changes also amplify the impact of discrimination. Policies and programs can ensure that all young people have ample positive pathways to gain respect.
Get sufficient sleep to support mental and physical well-being
Extensive research shows that healthy development, learning, and positive mental health during our adolescent years all require healthy, restful sleep. Schools, employers, youth-serving programs, and youth-focused residential settings should prioritize providing young people with schedules and conditions that promote quality sleep.
Healthy Sleep During Adolescence Is Essential for Mental and Physical Well-Being
Science Spotlight | Education | Digital Tech | Foster Care | Juvenile Justice
This spotlight summarizes research about the importance of sleep for young people and describes how policies and programs can support this critical adolescent need.
Adolescence is a period of remarkable growth and opportunity. The cognitive, physical, and psychological changes that take place during these years both help and motivate us to learn from the environments, experiences, and relationships that surround us in ways that can profoundly shape our trajectories and prepare us to succeed in adulthood. Extensive research shows that healthy development, learning, and positive mental health during adolescence all require healthy, restful sleep. Most adolescents do not get the sleep they need, yet sleep is often overlooked in conversations about adolescent well-being.
Following is a summary of research about the importance of sleep for young people and how policies and programs can support this critical adolescent need.
Amount
The National Sleep Foundation’s recommendations decrease with age throughout adolescence:
Quality
It’s not just time in bed that matters, but the quality of sleep—the number and duration of nighttime awakenings—an adolescent is getting. Using a comfortable pillow and bedding, minimizing light in the room, and reducing noise-emitting distractions like text messages and social media alerts can all improve sleep quality.
Consistency
Although it may seem logical to pack in as many hours of sleep as possible on the weekends, “catching up” on Saturdays and Sundays by sleeping until noon creates its own problems. No one is expected to go to bed at exactly the same time, but wild swings from night to night make it difficult for the body to set its circadian rhythm in a predictable fashion. Such severe schedule changes result in a “chronically jet-lagged state” that adolescents’ circadian system cannot adjust to.
Mental Health
The most significant evidence on the importance of sleep for adolescents relates to mental health. Quality sleep can reduce depressive symptoms, even for adolescents facing family-related stressful events such as job loss or the death of a family member. Insufficient sleep is associated with depression and anxiety and increases emotional reactivity and impulsivity.
Most alarming is the relationship between lack of sleep and suicide. Compared to high school students who reported sleeping eight hours per night, those who slept less than six hours were three times as likely to consider or attempt suicide, and four times as likely to attempt suicide resulting in treatment.
Physical Health
Insufficient or inconsistent amounts of sleep across the week during adolescence are associated with short- and long-term effects on health. Sleep deprivation has also been linked to obesity and diabetes as well as impaired immune function.
Brain Function
The amount of sleep an adolescent gets, the quality of that sleep, and the consistency of nightly sleep all appear to directly affect brain functioning in regions crucial for self-control, learning, emotional reactivity, and reward processing.
Biological Changes
Changes in the adolescent brain associated with puberty and maturation push adolescents’ circadian rhythm toward more of a “night owl” preference, and slow the buildup of sleep pressure (a biological response that makes us feel sleepy and helps us fall asleep) that makes us more and more tired as the day progresses.
Meanwhile, just as adolescent brains are shifting to a later natural bedtime anyway, they are also becoming more sensitive to external factors, such as blue lights from digital screens, that can further shift them toward later nights.
The effect of these changes is that the late night/early morning schedule many adolescents maintain during the school year becomes increasingly unhealthy.
Families
Even as adolescents become more independent, their families still impact their sleep habits. In general, more positive family relationships are associated with longer and better quality sleep.
Parents should know that adolescents are not too old for a bedtime. Research has shown that adolescents with parent-set bedtimes went to bed earlier (an average of 23 minutes) and got about 20 minutes more sleep per night than their peers without bedtimes. This 20-minute difference in sleep resulted in less fatigue and less trouble staying awake. The timing of the parent-set bedtime also matters. Adolescents with parent-set bedtimes of midnight or later were 24 percent more likely to suffer from depression and 20 percent more likely to have suicidal ideation than adolescents whose parents set bedtimes at 10:00 p.m. or earlier.
Technology
The effect on sleep is the most well-established negative effect of digital technology on adolescents. Electronic devices emit blue light that “tricks” the already light-sensitive adolescent brain into thinking it should be awake, alert, and ready for daylight.
In addition, the dynamic social exchanges and judgments required from social media lead to longer times to fall asleep. Other energizing interactions such as bullying, sexting, and arguments are also more likely to happen late at night. Adolescents who spend the most time on social media have twice the risk of disturbed sleep than those who spent less time on social media.
School demands
Many middle and high schools start earlier than elementary schools. Extended travel times to school require even earlier wake-up times, which mean even less sleep.
Early school start times are a major issue, given adolescents’ natural shift toward later sleep and wake times. Shifting school start times later has been proven to make a difference. After the Seattle School District delayed the start of their public high schools by nearly an hour, from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m., students’ daily median sleep time increased by 34 minutes a day, and grades increased 4.5 percent.
As school and other activities begin to start earlier in middle and high school, homework and extracurricular activities also increase, pushing bedtimes later. This can create more challenges because staying up later to study actually has a negative effect on learning. Sleep is not simply rest, but an active process where learning is internalized within the brain. In fact, when a high school student sacrifices sleep to study more hours than usual, that student can end up increasing academic problems—such as struggling on an assignment or a test—the next day.
There is no doubt that sleep is a public health issue for all adolescents. But the burden of insufficient sleep appears to weigh heavier on adolescents from racial minority groups and families of low socio-economic status. One study of 250 high school students from low- to middle-income communities showed that while insufficient sleep was a problem for most students, Black male students slept less than any other group. Ethnic and racial discrimination is also associated with shorter sleep duration and worse sleep quality, largely due to loneliness and stress.
Students from families experiencing economic hardship may face additional obstacles to sleep, such as longer commute times to school (requiring earlier wake-up times), less “optimal” sleep contexts, and after-school jobs.
Given the grave importance of sleep to mental and physical health and learning, the sleep deficits faced by youth who have been impacted by the effects of racial discrimination or economic hardship represent another impediment to equal opportunities for success. Sleep inequality may be a pathway through which social disparities impact health and well-being across the lifespan.
➢ Given that sleep is habitual, establishing healthy sleep routines and providing interventions when necessary during the early years of adolescence could be particularly impactful across the lifespan.
➢ Settings that are entrusted with adolescents’ residential environments–such as foster homes, juvenile justice facilities, and independent living placements for youth transitioning from systems of care into adulthood–should prioritize providing young people with conditions that promote quality sleep. Because some factors that influence sleep quality are unique to each individual–such as preferences in bedding and pillows–young people themselves should provide input on what works best for them whenever possible.
➢ Schools, employers, and youth-serving programs should structure schedules to help adolescents prioritize healthy sleep. This could include delaying school start times, limiting the hours that adolescents can work or drive on school nights, or avoiding early-morning or late-evening meetings or practice times.
➢ Technology companies should be partners in promoting healthy sleep habits in adolescence. For example, social media platforms and apps could include settings that promote better sleep such as automatic “do-not-disturb” periods or minimization of blue light at certain times of day.
➢ What happens at home is crucial. Fund programs that support parents’ and caregivers’ ability to identify and promote healthy sleep habits in the home, such as quiet times before bed or limitations on technology use at night.