Sleeping 2 Extra Hours on Weekends May Calm Teen Anxiety: Study Suggests

New Delhi: A new study presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting and published in the journal Sleep found that teens who get moderate -- but not excessive -- catch-up sleep on weekends have fewer symptoms of anxiety.

Results show that teens who got up to two more hours of sleep on weekends than on weekdays exhibited fewer anxiety symptoms compared with those who did not sleep longer on weekends. However, longer durations of catch-up sleep on weekends were associated with slightly more internalizing symptoms.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teenagers 13 to 18 years of age sleep 8 to 10 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health. However, CDC data show that only 23% of high school students get sufficient sleep on an average school night.

Consistently getting sufficient sleep is associated with better health outcomes including improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health. In contrast, insufficient sleep in teenagers is associated with increased risks of problems such as depression and suicidal thoughts.