The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent sleep behavior

Restorative sleep is a fundamental component of adolescent wellbeing, and the COVID-19 pandemic presented both challenges and opportunities for adolescents’ sleep. In this review, we synthesize emergent themes from the growing scientific evidence for the impact of the pandemic on adolescent sleep behavior across different stages of the pandemic and in different locations around the world. We also highlight the ways in which COVID-19 shaped sleep patterns among college students—a subgroup of adolescents transitioning to emerging adulthood that were particularly impacted by the shift to remote learning. Finally, we discuss variations in the impact according to several potential moderating factors in adolescents’ lives and point to areas that require additional longitudinal research.