Late-night phone use is impacting teen mental health | CNN

Teens’ glued-to-their-phone habits are turning many of them into night owls on school nights — at a time when they need all the sleep they can get. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommend teenagers get eight to 10 hours of sleep every night. But more than half of teens in the United States are spending up to an hour or more on their phone between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on school nights, new research has found. Additionally, more than half of teens were using their phones in the middle of the night, between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m., according to lead study author Jason M. Nagata, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Nagata and his colleagues analyzed data collected from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which shows how teenage phone-use patterns and specific types of uses cut into sleep during nighttime hours. Although the research doesn’t directly link nighttime phone use to harmful outcomes for teenagers, previous research has shown sleep disruption does have negative impacts. “By displacing the opportunity to sleep, it can be challenging for teens to get adequat

May 26, 2026 → May 26, 2026