{"id":636,"date":"2026-05-26T14:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=636"},"modified":"2026-05-26T14:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:11:10","slug":"teens-need-to-press-pause-on-late-night-doomscrolling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=636","title":{"rendered":"Teens need to press pause on late-night doomscrolling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Teens\u2019 glued-to-their-phone habits are turning many of them into night owls on school nights \u2014 at a time when they need all the sleep they can get.\n <\/p>

Read more Supreme Court allows Brian Flores to sue NFL for discriminating against Black coaches<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommend teenagers get eight to 10 hours of sleep every night.\n <\/p>\n

\n But more than half of teens in the United States are spending up to an hour or more on their phone between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on school nights, new research has found.\n <\/p>\n

\n Additionally, more than half of teens were using their phones in the middle of the night, between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m., according to lead study authorJason M. Nagata, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nagata and his colleagues analyzed data collected from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which shows how teenage phone-use patterns and specific types of uses cut into sleep during nighttime hours.\n <\/p>\n

\n Although the research doesn\u2019t directly link nighttime phone use to harmful outcomes for teenagers, previous research has shown sleep disruption does have negative impacts.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBy displacing the opportunity to sleep, it can be challenging for teens to get adequate sleep, and that has downstream impact on their waking behavior, as we\u2019ve known for many, many years,\u201d said Dr. Mary A. Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University. She was not involved with the study.\n <\/p>\n

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\nI tried to turn my phone off for a week. Why it didn\u2019t work<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

8 min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n Lack of sleep impacts a lot\n<\/h2>\n

\n Getting inadequate sleep can affect people in numerous ways. For teens, who are at an age when the brain and body are developing, sleep loss has even greater consequences.\n <\/p>\n

\n Cognitive function is impaired when the body isn\u2019t well rested. It becomes more difficult to consolidate and retain information acquired throughout the day.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOne of the life tasks for teenagers is to learn,\u201d Carskadon said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s school learning, learning their sports, how to behave with other people, social interactions, there\u2019s a lot of learning building up across the adolescent age span.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Emotional regulation worsens with poor sleep. In a 2013 study, a group of healthy adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 participated in a three-week experiment that started with a typical week of sleep. Next came a week of sleep restriction with 6 \u00bd hours of shut-eye per night, followed by a final week of healthy sleep with 10 hours each night.\n <\/p>\n

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\nKids need more sleep than many parents think. How to fix the bedtime gap<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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\n The participants rated themselves as slightly more anxious, angry, confused and fatigued during the sleep-restriction period compared with the healthy sleep period. The adolescents and their parents also reported more irritability and poorer emotional regulation.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe less sleep a teenager has, the more irritable they become,\u201d Carskadon said. \u201cParents will tell you that it\u2019s one of those no-brainer kind of conclusions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For certain more vulnerable youth, less sleep can pose risks to their mental health. Nagata noted that past research suggests sleep-deprived kids are at higher risk of depression and anxiety symptoms. Lack of sleep could also make teens vulnerable to suicidal ideation, self-harm and risk taking, Carskadon said.\n <\/p>\n

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\n How to get help\n <\/h3>\n