Significant personal and public health issues, such as depression and accidental injury and mortality, are associated with insufficient sleep. Converging biological and psychosocial factors mean that adolescence is a period of heightened risk. Parent-set bedtimes offer promise as a simple and easily translatable means for parents to improve the sleep and daytime functioning of their teens.

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The present study developed and tested a theoretical model examining the inter‐relationships among sleep duration, sleep quality, and circadian chronotype and their effect on alertness, depression, and academic performance. Participants were 385 adolescents aged 13–18 years (M = 15.6, SD = 1.0; 60% male) were recruited from eight socioeconomically diverse high schools in South Australia. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires during class time and recorded their sleep patterns in a sleep diary for 8 days. A good fit was found between the model and the data (χ2/df = 1.78, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .04). Circadian chronotype showed the largest association with on adolescent functioning, with more evening‐typed students reporting worse sleep quality (β = .50, p < .001) and diminished alertness (β = .59, p < .001). Sleep quality was significantly associated with poor outcomes: adolescents with poorer sleep quality reported less sleep on school nights (β = −.28, p < .001), diminished daytime alertness (β = .33, p < .001), and more depressed mood (β = .47, p < .001). Adolescents with poor sleep quality and/or more evening chronotype were also more likely to report worse grades, through the association with depression. Sleep duration showed no direct effect on adolescent functioning. These results identified the importance of two lesser‐studied aspects of sleep: circadian chronotype and sleep quality. Easy‐to‐implement strategies to optimize sleep quality and maintain an adaptive circadian body clock may help to increase daytime alertness, elevate mood, and improve academic performance.

These normative values have potential application to assist the interpretation of actigraphy measures from nighttime recordings across the pediatric age range, and aid future research.

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BackgroundIn research and clinical contexts, parent reports are often used to gain information about the sleep patterns of their adolescents; however, the degree of concordance between parent reports and adolescent-derived measures is unclear. The present study compares parent estimates of adolescent sleep patterns with adolescent self-reports from surveys and sleep diaries, together with actigraphy.MethodsA total of 308 adolescents (59% male) aged 13–17 years completed a school sleep habits survey during class time at school, followed by a 7-day sleep diary and wrist actigraphy. Parents completed the Sleep, Medical, Education and Family History Survey.ResultsParents reported an idealized version of their adolescent’s sleep, estimating significantly earlier bedtimes on both school nights and weekends, significantly later wake times on weekends, and significantly more sleep than either the adolescent self-reported survey, sleep diary, or actigraphic estimates.ConclusionParent reports indicate that the adolescent averages a near-optimal amount of sleep on school nights and a more than optimal amount of sleep on weekends. However, adolescent-derived averages indicate patterns of greater sleep restriction. These results illustrate the importance of using adolescent-derived estimates of sleep patterns in this age group and the importance of sleep education for both adolescents and their parents.