A recent study revealed that teenagers who get up to two hours of sleep on weekends experience reduced anxiety symptoms than those who don’t.
According to a study published at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting, teens who received moderate sleep on weekends experienced reduced symptoms of anxiety.
Results discovered that teens who got up to two more hours of sleep on weekends than on weekdays exhibited reduced anxiety symptoms in contrast to teens who did not sleep excessively on weekends.
Extra sleep hours on weekend may calm teen anxiety
Researchers found that both sleeping less on weekends than weekdays and sleeping substantially more on weekends were associated with higher anxiety symptoms.
Lead author Sojeong Kim, a psychology graduate advisor at the University of Oregon in Eugene stated, "In contrast, moderate catch-up sleep -- defined as less than two hours -- was associated with lower anxiety symptoms, suggesting that some weekend recovery sleep may be beneficial."
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine advised teenagers from the age of 13 to 18 years to sleep 8 to 10 hours daily for improved health. However, CDC data indicated that only 23% of high school students get sufficient sleep on an average school night.
"Many teens try to make up for lost sleep by sleeping in on weekends," Kim added.
Experts highlighted that it is essential to detect the right amount of catch-up sleep which has a good effect on teens who restrict their sleep during the week.
