Teen sleep is getting wrecked by more than just phones

Summary

Short Wave: "Teen Sleep is Getting Wrecked by More than Just Phones"

Date: March 6, 2026
Hosts: Regina Barber, Katia Riddle
Guest: Scott Detrow (All Things Considered)
Episode Length: ~10 minutes

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Episode Overview

In this lively science news roundup, Regina Barber, Katia Riddle, and guest Scott Detrow tackle three intriguing topics: the sharp decline in teen sleep (and why it’s not just phones to blame), new research on the mega-volatile Cascadia earthquake fault, and discoveries about prehistoric diets from ancient pottery. The conversation mixes humor, personal anecdotes, and clear science reporting, making complex topics accessible and engaging.

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1. Teen Sleep Crisis: More Than Just Phones

Key Insights

• Recent research, published in JAMA, found that over three-quarters of U.S. high schoolers are not getting sufficient sleep (less than 7 hours per night) — a trend worsening across almost all demographics and surpassing previous years. ([02:35]–[02:51])
• Some teens reported getting less than five hours of sleep per night. The data come from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which samples about 120,000 teens biannually. ([02:51]–[03:05])
• Teens with depression or suicidal thoughts tend to sleep even less, but sleep problems are widespread beyond these groups. ([03:23])
• The consequences of sleep deprivation are dire for teens: higher rates of depression, more car accidents, worse academic outcomes, difficulty getting jobs, maintaining relationships, and lower overall life satisfaction. ([03:48]–[04:16])
• Pediatrician Dr. Cora Collette Bruner (Seattle Children’s Hospital), who did not participate in the study, confirmed seeing these issues firsthand in her practice. ([03:48])
• The problem isn’t fully explained by individual behavior (like phones). Structural and environmental factors—such as early school start times—likely play a key role, suggesting the need for broad societal interventions. ([04:25]–[04:40])
• Later school start times are linked to improved sleep and mental health in teens. ([04:40])

Notable Quotes

• “The number of teenagers getting insufficient sleep...now it’s more than three quarters of these high school students.”
  — Regina Barber ([02:35])
• “If teens don’t get enough sleep, they’re more depressed, they get in more car accidents, they do worse at school, they don’t get good jobs, they don’t maintain relationships, they don’t have happy and productive lives.”
  — Dr. Cora Collette Bruner, quoted by Regina Barber ([03:48])
• “Since insufficient sleep seems to be a problem plaguing most teens, there must be structural environmental factors at play here.”
  — Katia Riddle ([04:25])

Memorable Moment

• Scott Detrow, chuckling about teen-parent distance:
  “That teen in my house…that doesn’t talk to me.”
  — Scott Detrow ([02:28])

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2. The Looming ‘Big One’: Cascadia Megathrust Earthquake

Key Insights

• The Cascadia Subduction Zone, a major fault off the Pacific Northwest coast, poses risks of a catastrophic “megathrust” earthquake—one of the largest possible. ([04:54]–[05:25])
• New work from University of Washington researchers, published in Science Advances, used a decade of seafloor sensors to better map the fault’s mechanics. ([05:30]–[06:11])
• Insights revealed that the northern section of Cascadia is tightly locked and accruing stress, while the central section allows more fluid movement—meaning a future quake could unfold in new, unpredictable ways. ([06:11])
• These findings don’t immediately change who is at risk, but, as external earthquake scientist Chris Goldfinger explains, the scientific understanding of the zone’s catastrophic potential only emerged in the mid-1980s—and such detailed studies are vital for future preparedness. ([06:35])

Notable Quotes

• “That’s a big fault. It’s normal around here to keep a supply of earthquake emergency things in your garage, like bottled water and batteries.”
  — Katia Riddle ([04:55])
• “That data was gathered over a decade, and it gives us one of the most nuanced pictures yet of the Cascadia Fault.”
  — Regina Barber ([06:11])

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3. Prehistoric Pottery Reveals Ancient Diets

Key Insights

• Scientists analyzed food residues on 4,000–8,000-year-old pots from northern Europe (Denmark to western Russia) and identified remnants of meals, shedding light on the diets of ancient hunter-gatherers. ([07:06]–[07:23])
• One notable discovery: a stew of fish and gelder roseberries—bitter berries that turn flavorful when cooked. This dish’s persistence across millennia demonstrates lost culinary traditions. ([07:34]–[08:00], [08:12])
• Archaeologist Crystal Dozier (Wichita State University) emphasized that many plants and even animals once eaten are gone from modern cuisine. ([08:12])
• The team even re-created some dishes: Oliver Craig (University of York, study author) described ancient flavors as “a bit flavorless,” but still found the berries "tasty," underscoring how food preferences are shaped by cultural context. ([08:46])

Notable Quotes

• “Our ancient, ancient, ancient ancestors were also not washing their dishes.”
  — Scott Detrow, on the benefits of old food crusts for science ([07:34])
• “There’s a lot of plants and even animals that we used to eat in the past as humans that have fallen out of our culinary traditions.”
  — Crystal Dozier (quoted by Katia Riddle) ([08:12])
• “Please, listeners, don’t eat random berries unless you know what they are, like, for real.”
  — Regina Barber ([08:20])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Teen Sleep Shortage Discussion: [02:21]–[04:49]
• Cascadia Earthquake Fault Research: [04:49]–[07:01]
• Ancient Pottery & Prehistoric Diets: [07:01]–[09:08]

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Final Thoughts & Takeaways

This episode underscores that:

• The teen sleep crisis is worsening, fueled by societal and structural trends—not just individual choices or technology.
• Improving sleep health for teens may require big changes, like school policies—not just nagging about bedtime.
• The potential for devastating earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest remains high, but science is making major strides in understanding the risks.
• Ancient culinary practices hold lessons for today, both in what we’ve lost and the possibilities for rediscovery.

As always, the hosts balance seriousness with humor, personal anecdotes, and a spirit of curiosity, making science news feel both important and relatable.

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For full episode, listen to Short Wave by NPR. For deeper dives:

• JAMA study on teen sleep ([02:35])
• University of Washington research in Science Advances ([05:30])
• Prehistoric diet study in PLOS ONE ([07:06])

Transcript

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[Regina Barber]

hey, short waivers. Regina Barber here and Katia Riddle. And today we have our bi weekly science news roundup featuring the hosts of All Things Considered. So here with Katie and I this time is Scott Detrow.

[Scott Detrow]

Hello. This is one of my favorite segments to do. I hear we are talking about the fact that apparently teens are still not sleeping enough.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah.

[Katia Riddle]

And new insights on a potential mega thrust earthquake in the Pacific Northwest and

[Regina Barber]

ancient recipes discovered in prehistoric pottery.

[Katia Riddle]

All of that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from npr.

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[Regina Barber]

So, Scott, where would you like to start?

[Scott Detrow]

Regina, I feel like usually you're taking me deep out into the cosmos, but let's just start with like, you know, something much closer to home.

[Regina Barber]

Right. That teen in. In my house.

[Scott Detrow]

Yes.

[Regina Barber]

That doesn't talk to me.

[Scott Detrow]

The surly one who's apparently not getting enough sleep.

[Katia Riddle]

Yes. Yes.

[Regina Barber]

So researchers studied the sleep habits of high school students from 2007-20, 23. And they found that the number of teenagers getting insufficient sleep, that's less than seven hours a night. The rise now it's more than three quarters of these high school students.

[Katia Riddle]

These bad sleep habits were true across most demographics, races, genders, grades, and, Scott, some of these kids are getting less than five hours of sleep a night. The results are in the medical journal jama.

[Scott Detrow]

Any sense why this is happening?

[Katia Riddle]

Well, the researchers tried to get at that. This data is from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This is a survey that more than 120,000 U.S. high schoolers take every two years answering questions about health risk behavior behaviors like alcohol use, cannabis use, and sexual activity.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah, and lack of sleep seemed to be a problem across the study groups in teens with and without behavioral issues, although the paper noted that the teens who reported depression or suicidal thoughts tended to sleep less than the others in the group.

[Scott Detrow]

I can speak from experience because I shockingly got enough sleep last night, which does not always happen. I assume it is very bad to not get enough sleep. But I'm curious, like, what are pediatricians saying in quantifying this? Like, what specifically are they worried about?

[Regina Barber]

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing, because I have a teenager. Teenager in high school. So I reached out to a pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital, Dr. Cora Collette Bruner. She didn't work on this study, but she thought this study was fascinating. She told me she'd seen the effects of insufficient sleep firsthand in her practice. She says that if teens don't get enough sleep, they're more depressed, they get in more car accidents, they do worse at school, they don't get good jobs, they don't maintain relationships, they don't have happy and productive lives.

[Scott Detrow]

None of that is good.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

That's bad.

[Scott Detrow]

So next question then is, like, what specific suggestions do doctors have to try and turn this around on the individual level or the broader level?

[Katia Riddle]

Well, the study authors say since insufficient sleep seems to be a problem plaguing most teens, there must be structural environmental factors at play here. And they suggest broad interventions that could potentially reach most kids.

[Regina Barber]

For example, they point out that later school start times are linked to longer sleep and improved mental health. So interventions like that might help students across the get better sleep.

[Scott Detrow]

All right, let's shift to the next topic. A megathrust earthquake. Sounds kind of metal. Sounds scary.

[Regina Barber]

Tell me more.

[Katia Riddle]

It is scary, especially if you're a person like me who lives in the Pacific Northwest above the Cascadia Subduction zone. That's a big fault. It's normal around here to keep a supply of earthquake emergency things in your garage, like bottled water and batteries.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah, this is that big one I would always hear about growing up and that fault, the plates are pushing towards each other and moving closer at a rate of about an inch or more a year. Think of it, a slowly compressing spring that could eventually snap in. A massive earthquake.

[Scott Detrow]

Seems like we are learning more about how that might unfold, though, if it does happen.

[Katia Riddle]

That's right. Researchers at the University of Washington published a study in the journal Science Advances. They looked at the mechanics of the plates in the Cascadia fault. The challenge is the fault is beneath the sea floor, which makes it hard to access and to study.

[Regina Barber]

We talk about going to the Moon and Mars, but the ocean, the deep

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

ocean is hard to get to, and it's right next to our coast.

[Katia Riddle]

That's Maureen Denoule, one of the researchers who worked on this. She and her colleagues listened very closely to the Earth using sensors that are on the seafloor. These sensors measure tiny changes in seismic signals, and that gives us some idea of what's happening inside the fault.

[Regina Barber]

That data was gathered over a decade, and it gives us one of the most nuanced pictures yet of the Cascadia Fault. They found that the northern part of the fault may be more tightly locked and it's storing more stress, while the central section seems to allow more fluid movement along the fault. Which means an earthquake along the fault might unfold differently than they originally thought.

[Scott Detrow]

So what does that mean for life and society on the surface, then?

[Katia Riddle]

Well, it's probably too early to tell. There's a lot of other factors to think about. Population density and proximity to the ocean, for example. We talked to another earthquake scientist not involved in this study, Chris Goldfinger. He says that the potential for catastrophe because of this earthquake zone wasn't really understood until the mid-1980s. And these kinds of studies will help us better understand and prepare for earthquakes. We just need more of them.

[Scott Detrow]

All right, let's shift to our third and final topic, Prehistoric diets.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah, I'm excited about this one, because scientists know a lot about agricultural societies and like the way they used to eat back then, but not much about what hunter gatherers used to eat. And a new study in the journal PLOS ONE takes a look at that. A group of scientists analyzed ancient pots from roughly 4,000 to 8,000 years ago.

[Katia Riddle]

These pots were from all over northern Europe, from what is now Denmark to western Russia. And what they were looking at specifically, was old food remains caked on the inside of these ancient pots.

[Scott Detrow]

I'm going to say I feel, I feel better that our ancient, ancient, ancient ancestors were also not washing their dishes.

[Regina Barber]

But it's good for science because you're welcome, right? Because the researchers found food crusts left over from a whole bunch of ancient meals. But one of the ones they found the most interesting was a stew of fish mixed with gelder roseberries. These bright red berries are normally bitter, but they taste totally different. They have a totally different flavor once they're cooked.

[Katia Riddle]

It's a dish that existed even in more recent European history. Crystal Dozier, an archeologist at Wichita State University, says these berries are an example of how there's a lot of plants

[Regina Barber]

and even animals that we used to eat in the past as humans that

[Katia Riddle]

have fallen out of our culinary traditions.

[Regina Barber]

And these kind of studies remind us that sometimes we need to look back to look forward. Case in point, Scott, people might even find these gelder roseberries in their neighborhood if they live in the northern United States. They often are grown as decorative plants. But these berries are edible once you cook them. Although, like, please, listeners don't eat random berries unless you know what they are like, for real.

[Scott Detrow]

I'm wondering, though, did the scientists end up cooking any of these ancient dishes themselves?

[Katia Riddle]

They did. Oliver Craig, a senior author on the paper at the University of York, felt that while some of the dishes were a bit flavorless, he thought the berries were tasty. But he says what people see as tasty changes massively depending on the cultural context.

[Regina Barber]

So true. It brings me back to childhood taste

[Scott Detrow]

change, minute to minute, day to day.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah. And if you want to hear more about this Cascadia Fault earthquake, growing up, we called it the big one. We did a whole episode on the science behind it. We'll link to that in our show notes. And Scott, thank you so much for being on our show.

[Scott Detrow]

Anytime. It is always super fun and I learn a lot. Thank you.

[Regina Barber]

You can hear more of Scott on consider this, NPR's afternoon podcast about what the news means for you.

[Katia Riddle]

And for more science stories just like this one, follow Short Wave on whatever app you're listening to.

[Regina Barber]

This episode was produced by Jordan Murray Smith, Arun nair and Burleigh McCoy. It was edited by Christopher Intagliotta and Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts.

[Katia Riddle]

Becky Brown and Jimmy Keeley were the audio engineers.

[Regina Barber]

I'm Regina Barber.

[Katia Riddle]

And I'm Katia Riddle.

[Regina Barber]

Thank you so much for listening to Shorewave, the science podcast from npr.

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