--- title: This Is What Teens Do When They Don't Sleep description: Teens who don't get enough sleep each night do riskier things than their well-slept peers canonical: https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-07T21:40:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:57.202Z article:section: Health og:title: This Is What Teens Do When They Don't Sleep og:description: Teens who don't get enough sleep each night do riskier things than their well-slept peers og:url: https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d9e9aeb8d4496/69888e2fa988cae8786b74fd/pillow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5446 og:image:height: 3063 og:image:alt: 159991320 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is What Teens Do When They Don't Sleep twitter:description: Teens who don't get enough sleep each night do riskier things than their well-slept peers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d9e9aeb8d4496/69888e2fa988cae8786b74fd/pillow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is What Teens Do When They Don't Sleep > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Do You Really Need 8 Hours of Sleep? [Watch (HLS stream): Do You Really Need 8 Hours of Sleep?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/o0FTMkL0.m3u8) (2:25)  _Published 2015-05-15. Do You Really Need 8 Hours of Sleep?_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 7, 2016 9:40 PM UTC  White Bed Sheets White Bed SheetsGetty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 7, 2016 9:40 PM UTC People just aren’t at their best when they don’t get enough sleep. (Check out [this week’s bummer finding](http://time.com/4282023/this-is-what-happens-to-your-brain-on-no-sleep/) that people with insomnia seem to have less white matter connectivity in their brains.) For developing brains, adequate sleep also appears to be critical, yet several studies have shown that[ teenagers are often sleep deprived](http://time.com/4217062/why-schools-are-struggling-to-let-students-sleep-in/). Now, a new report reveals some of the possible consequences of tiredness in young people and shows that high school students who get less than seven hours of sleep at night also report several injury-related risk behaviors. In the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers looked at information from 50,370 high school students from grades nine to 12\. They found that teens who said they slept less than seven hours a night were more likely to also report behaviors like frequently biking without a helmet, not wearing a seatbelt, driving with a driver who had been drinking, driving and driving, and texting and driving compared to other teens in the trial who reported sleeping for nine hours a night. It’s currently recommended that adolescents between the ages 14–17 years aim for eight to 10 hours each night. “Although insufficient sleep directly contributes to injury risk, some of the increased risk associated with insufficient sleep might be caused by engaging in injury-related risk behaviors,” the study authors write. “Intervention efforts aimed at these behaviors might help reduce injuries resulting from sleepiness, as well as provide opportunities for increasing awareness of the importance of sleep.” The new report can only show an association between lack of sleep and a greater propensity toward riskier behaviors, but it’s not the first to connect lack of sleep to problems among young people. In 2014 the American Academy of Pediatrics made a [formal recommendation](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2014/08/19/peds.2014-1697.full.pdf) that school start times be delayed so teens can sleep in, due in part to the evidence that insufficient sleep contributes to behavior and academic troubles and higher obesity risk. As [TIME has previously reported](http://time.com/4217062/why-schools-are-struggling-to-let-students-sleep-in/), some school districts are following that advice and [pushing back their school start times](http://time.com/when-sleep-and-school-dont-mix/) so that teens can get more shuteye. The latest report also acknowledges that some teens need more sleep than others, and that a lack of sleep could also be a sign of something else, like a sleep disorder, too much cell phone use or even depression. To maximize quality rest, they recommend adopting habits like going to sleep and waking up at the same time, minimizing light exposure at night and keeping electronics out of the bedroom. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/"},"headline":"This Is What Teens Do When They Don't Sleep","datePublished":"2016-04-07T21:40:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:57.202Z","description":"Teens who don't get enough sleep each night do riskier things than their well-slept peers","url":"https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/","keywords":["Public Health","Teens","High School","Sleep","CDC","sleep deprivation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d9e9aeb8d4496/69888e2fa988cae8786b74fd/pillow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d9e9aeb8d4496/69888e2fa988cae8786b74fd/pillow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"159991320","caption":"159991320","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/","name":"This Is What Teens Do When They Don't Sleep"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Do You Really Need 8 Hours of Sleep?","description":"Do You Really Need 8 Hours of Sleep?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/o0FTMkL0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-15T21:17:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/o0FTMkL0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/","duration":"PT2M25S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4285012/teens-sleep-deprived/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```