Sleep medicine reviewsJul 21, 2026

Social jetlag linked to anxiety in teenagers: A review and combined analysis

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jul 23, 2026

Abstract

A small association was found between increased social jetlag and more severe anxiety in adolescents (Fisher's z = 0.0614).

Social jetlag (SJL) is characterized by discrepancies in sleep timing between weekdays and weekends.
Anxiety is the most common mental health issue among adolescents aged 12-18 years.
The systematic review included 18 studies, with 12 contributing to the meta-analysis involving 235,526 participants.
The meta-analysis indicated that increased SJL may be linked to higher levels of anxiety.
Findings suggest that behavioral strategies promoting regular sleep patterns could be beneficial for adolescent mental health.

Simplified

Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health difficulty in adolescence, a period characterised by a shift towards an eveningness chronotype that is not aligned with societal demands (i.e., school start times). Experiencing "social jetlag" (SJL), a discrepancy in weekday-weekend sleep timing, is proposed to be associated with increased anxiety. A PRISMA-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between SJL and anxiety in adolescents (age range: 12-18 years). Systematic searches were conducted in PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, MEDLINE, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global on 14th November 2024 to retrieve empirical studies analysing the relationship between SJL and anxiety in 12-18-year-olds. A multi-level random-effect meta-analysis was conducted in R to estimate the magnitude of the association between SJL and anxiety. After screening 2,138 records, 18 studies were included in the systematic review, with 12 included in the meta-analysis (235,526 participants in total) and six in a narrative review. A small association was found between increased SJL and more severe anxiety (Fisher's z = 0.0614, 95% CI [0.0268, 0.0961], p = 0.0011). These findings highlight the importance of addressing behavioural strategies targeting healthy regular sleep as a tool to improve mental health in adolescence.

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Competing interests

Conflicts of interest This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. AB declares: (a) funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR208319) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (NGR2\1430), (b) honoraria as Joint Editor of JCPP Advances and from the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation, and (c) travel reimbursements from the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) and the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO); none of this related to the present project. He is also a member of the NHS England ADHD taskforce. None of the other authors declares conflicts of interest.

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Social jetlag linked to anxiety in teenagers: A review and combined analysis

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