Regina Barber

Hey, Shore Wavers.

Regina Barber here.

And Katie Ariddle.

And today we have our biweekly science news roundup featuring the hosts of All Things Considered.

So here with Katie and I, this time, is Scott Detrow.

So, Scott, where would you like to start?

Right, that teen in my house that doesn't talk to me?

Yes, yes.

So researchers studied the sleep habits of high school students from 2007 to 2023, and they found that the number of teenagers getting insufficient sleep, that's less than seven hours a night, is on the rise.

Now it's more than three quarters of these high school students.

Yeah, and lack of sleep seemed to be a problem across the study groups in teens with and without behavioral issues.

Although the paper noted that the teens who reported depression or suicidal thoughts tended to sleep less than the others in the group.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing because I have a teenager in high school.

So I reached out to a pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Dr. Cora Collette Bruner.

She didn't work on this study, but she thought this study was fascinating.

She told me she'd seen the effects of insufficient sleep firsthand in her practice.

She says that if teens don't get enough sleep, they're more depressed.

For example, they point out that later school start times are linked to longer sleep and improve mental health.

So interventions like that might help students across the board get better sleep.