The American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended that high schools delay their start time until 8:30 am or later because teenagers are sleep deprived. Sleep Cycle found that Washington D.C. goes to bed the latest out of the 50 states at 12:08 a.m.—that’s 30 minutes later than the national average and 12 minutes later than Rhode Island, the state with the second latest bedtime. What’s more, Washington D.C. teenagers wake up the latest out of all 50 states at 7:16 a.m., 21 minutes later than the national average.
Neighboring States Latest Bedtimes
- Pennsylvania—11:39 p.m., 29 minutes earlier than Washington D.C.
- Maryland—11:40 p.m., 28 minutes earlier than Washington D.C.
- Virginia—11:47 p.m., 21 minutes earlier than Washington D.C.
Neighboring States Wake Up Time
- Maryland—6:48 a.m., 28 minutes earlier than Washington D.C.
- Pennsylvania—6:54 a.m., 22 minutes earlier than Washington D.C.
- Virginia—6:59 a.m., 17 minutes earlier than Washington D.C.
Other key findings on how teens sleep:
All data is voluntarily shared by Sleep Cycle users
· Bedtime: National average is 11:38 pm for all 14-19 year olds
· Earliest bedtime: 11:15 pm in Wyoming
· Latest bedtime: Washington D.C. at 12:08 pm
· Wake-up: The average wake-up time for teens in the U.S. is 6:55 a.m.
· Teens in D.C. wake up the latest at 7:16 a.m.—38 minutes later than the state that wakes up the earliest
· Teens in Wyoming wake up the earliest at 6:38 a.m.
· Sleep Quantity: U.S. teens sleep 7 hours 8 minutes, on average, each night
· D.C. teens get 6 hours and 53 minutes of sleep a night on average—15 minutes less than the national average
· Most time in bed: Montana at 7 hours 25 minutes—32 more minutes than D.C.
· Europe vs. US on sleep: US teens get less sleep than their counterparts in Europe (UK teens alone clock 7 hours, 38 minutes), where secondary schools are known to start school much later, after 9am (source: Scientific American). 40% of U.S. high schools start before 8am and only 15% start at 8:30 am or later (source: The American Academy of Pediatrics).
This report includes U.S. male and female Sleep Cycle alarm clock users ages 14-19 who voluntarily shared their sleep data during the time period of September 1 – November 13, 2014 for a total of 418,265 nights. All data is shared by users voluntarily. For global statistics, data was pulled from all countries with a minimum of 1,500 participating users, male and female, ages 14-19.
Information via Sleep Cycle
