Moderate weekend of catching up with a lower teen fear

The new study to be presented at the annual Sleep 2025 meeting showed that teenagers, which are moderate – but not excessive – sleep of catching up on weekends have fewer symptoms of anxiety.

The results show that teens who slept up to two hours of sleep on weekends than on weekdays showed fewer anxiety symptoms compared to those who no longer slept on weekends. However, longer times of catching up on weekends were associated with a slightly larger number of internalization symptoms.

“The results show that both sleeping on weekends than on weekdays and sleeping much more on weekends were associated with anxiety symptoms,” said the main author of Sjeong Kim, a PhD student at the Faculty of Clinical Psychology and Psychology Graduate at the University of Oregon at Eugene. “On the other hand, a moderate dream of catching up – defined as less than two hours – was associated with lower anxiety symptoms, which suggests that some weekend of sleeping recovery can be beneficial.”

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teens aged 13 to 18 regularly sleep from 8 to 10 hours to promote optimal health. However, CDC data show that only 23% of high school students have enough sleep on the average school night.

Many teenagers try to compensate for lost sleep, sleeping on weekends. “

Sjeong Kim, the main author

Consistently obtaining sufficient sleep is associated with better health results, including better attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life and mental and physical health. However, insufficient sleep in teenagers is associated with an increased risk of problems such as depression and suicidal thoughts.

1877 teenagers with an average age of 13.5 took part in the study. Sleep time was estimated with the help of Fitbit devices, while internalization symptoms were assessed using the testing list of children’s behavior. The weekend dream of catching up was calculated as a difference between sleep time on the weekend and weekdays.

Kim noticed that it is important to identify the right amount of sleep, which is beneficial to teenagers who limit their sleep during the week.

“Too low or too much sleep variability from a week to the weekend can contribute to the symptoms that someone is trying to fight, such as physical or mental fatigue and a feeling of anxiety,” she said.

The research summary has recently been published in the Sleep magazine online supplement and will be presented on Wednesday, June 11, during 2025 sleep in Seattle. Sleep is the annual meeting of Associated Professional Sleep Societies, Joint Venture American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society.