Teens are Losing More Sleep Than Ever

“Like my status if you’re up.” “Double tap if you’re up.” “#breakingnight.” These are just some of the updates teenagers post late at night on social media.

“It’s like a constant communication,” one high school senior told Radio Rookie Temitayo Fagbenle in her report.

Young people used to have sleepovers on the weekends and stay up all night talking, but now, it’s like they’re having unlimited sleepovers, seven nights a week in their own bedrooms. 

Teenagers should get about nine hours of sleep a night but, according to the National Sleep Foundation, the average teenager sleeps a little over seven hours a night. 

This story is part of the WNYC sleep project. Over April and May, as part of this data news experiment, the fitness company Jawbone gave us wristbands so teenagers could have a simple way to log their sleep, and see what happened next. Kiara Acevedo and Emely Munoz, students at HERO High School in the Bronx, joined us after listening to Temi's piece to explain more about what's keeping teens awake.