Sleep Is Integral to School Health and Adolescent Wellbeing: An Evidence-Based Call to Action.

Authors

Jared M Saletin, Terra D Ziporyn, Amy R Wolfson, Stephanie J Crowley

Published in

The Journal of school health. Volume 96. Issue 10. Pages e70251.

Abstract

Sleep is essential for healthy growth and function. Sleepiness is common in middle and high school classrooms; many adolescents struggle to receive sufficient, well-timed sleep.
We provide a discussion of theory and policy ramifications of adolescent sleep science. We provide a unified overview of sleep's benefits for physical and mental health, safety, alertness, learning, and school performance. We outline the developmental biological-social-societal interplay influencing sleep in adolescents. We discuss the impact of changing school start times on sleep health and factors relating to school-related sleep equity. We discuss the success of changing school start times, sleep-health education, and how science-informed policies can combine later start times with educational and behavioral supports.
Ignoring sleep compromises students' and schools' success. Improving the opportunity for sleep, primarily through altering school start times, yields healthier and more productive students. Whether action manifests in the classroom, school, district, or state, the health of students-and schools-improves when policies offer adolescents opportunities to obtain the sleep they need.
Underscoring sleep's critical role in school performance, the evidence calls on educators and policymakers to address chronic sleep deprivation and its consequences for adolescents.

PMID:
42865174
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Oct 2026.

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