Purpose

To present normative values of mean sleep duration from adolescence through young adulthood (ages 13-32 years), prevalence of short (<6 hours) and long (>10 hours) sleep durations, and differences in each by sex and race/ethnicity.

Methods

Mean sleep duration and prevalence of extremely short and long sleep were estimated using data from the United States National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Waves 1-4 (N = 15,701).

Results

Sleep duration showed age-related trends, with decreases across the adolescent period from 8.5 hours per night at age 13 years to 7.3 hours at age 18 years, an increase through the emerging adulthood period to 8.5 hours at age 22, and a gradual decline across early adulthood to 7.7 hours at age 32 years. Prevalence of extremely long and short sleep followed similar developmental trends. Adolescent girls reported lower mean sleep duration than did boys, but women reported longer average sleep duration than did men from age 19 years onward. Short sleep duration was most common among African-Americans at all ages. Long sleep was most common among African-Americans in adolescence and emerging adulthood and among Hispanics in early adulthood.

Conclusions

Sleep duration is developmentally patterned from adolescence through early adulthood. Mean and extreme sleep durations vary systematically by sex and race/ethnicity as well as age. These normative data on sleep duration will inform studies of the role of sleep in the etiology of a wide range of health conditions affecting adolescents and young adults.

Most adolescents face numerous obstacles to good sleep, which may undermine healthy development. In this study, we used latent class analysis and identified four categories of sleep barriers in a diverse sample of 553 urban youth (57% female). The majority profile, School/Screens Barriers, reported the most homework and extracurricular barriers, along with high screen time. The Home/Screens Barriers class (i.e., high environmental noise, light, screen use) and the High/Social Barriers class (i.e., high barriers across domains, particularly social) reported the poorest sleep quality and highest depressive/anxiety symptoms. The Minimal Barriers class-predominately male, with low depressive/anxiety symptoms-reported more sleep per night. We discuss implications of our findings for targeting interventions to address poor adolescent sleep among specific clusters of students.

Adolescent sleep deprivation is a pressing public health issue in the United States as well as other countries. The contexts of adolescents lives are changing rapidly, but little is known about the factors that adolescents themselves believe affect their sleep. This study uses a social-ecological framework to investigate multiple levels of perceived influence on sleep patterns of urban adolescents. Data were drawn from interviews and surveys conducted in three California public high schools. Most participants identified homework as their primary barrier to sleep, particularly those engaged in procrastinating, multitasking, or those with extracurricular demands. Results indicate that the home context has important implications for adolescent sleep, including noise, household rules, and perceived parent values. These findings identify important areas for future research and intervention, particularly regarding the roles of parents.