Moderate weekend sleep associated with the lowest stress of adolescents

A new study that will be presented at the annual meeting of Sleep 2025 has found that teenagers who take medium – but not excessive – sleep on weekends have less anxiety symptoms.

The results show that teenagers who have increased in two more hours of sleep on weekends than on the daily ones had fewer anxiety symptoms compared to those who did not sleep more on weekends. However, the longer duration of catch-up sleep on weekends were associated with slightly more internal symptoms.

“The results show that both sleep less on weekends than daily and sleeping on weekends were linked to higher anxiety symptoms,” said lead writer Sojeong Kim, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology. “On the contrary, moderate sleep – defined as less than two hours – has been associated with lower symptoms of anxiety, suggesting that a weekend recovery sleep can be beneficial.”

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends teenagers aged 13 to 18 to sleep 8 to 10 hours on a regular basis to promote optimum health. However, CDC data show that only 23% of high school students have enough sleep in an average school night.

Many teenagers are trying to offset lost sleep on weekends. ”

Sojeong Kim, Head writer

Stable intake of adequate sleep is associated with better health results, including improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life and mental and physical health. On the contrary, inadequate sleep in adolescents is linked to increased risk of problems such as depression and suicidal thoughts.

The study included 1,877 adolescents with an average age of 13.5 years. Sleep duration was appreciated using fitbit devices, while the internalization of the symptoms was evaluated using the children’s behavior control list survey. The weekend’s sleep was calculated as the difference between the weekend and the week.

Kim noted that it is important to determine the correct amount of sleep that is beneficial to adolescents who limit their sleep during the week.

“Very little or excessive sleep volatility from the day of the week to the weekend can contribute to the symptoms that one is trying to fight, such as physical or mental fatigue and feelings of anxiety,” he said.

The summary of the study was recently published in an electronic supplement of Sleep magazine and will be presented on Wednesday, June 11, during Sleep 2025 in Siatl. Sleep is the annual meeting of the relevant professional sleeping communities, a joint company at the American Sleep Medicine Academy and Sleep Research Company.