Why So Many Teens Feel Exhausted All the Time

It’s a glorious summer afternoon and I’m sitting on a park bench basking in the warm sunshine. I got most of my work done in the morning and now I’m responding to messages and taking advantage of the idyllic weather.

I see my friend walk up. He looks groggy and yawns. I ask him if he wants to go swimming with me and he says he’s on the way to the store to buy some milk for breakfast. Breakfast? I say it’s two o’clock. “Yeah, I just woke up,” he says.

I’m not surprised at all. Many of my friends rarely leave the house before noon unless their parents make them get up, and from what I can see that’s pretty typical across the whole teenage population. A study by Stanford Medicine shows that 87 percent of U.S. high school students get far less than the recommended amount of sleep per night. So maybe that’s why they are exhausted all the time? Partly, but it goes a lot deeper than that and impacts their mental and physical health, productivity, memory, mood, and more.

On an average non-school day, by noon I have already gone running, eaten breakfast, spent time with my family, and gotten two or three hours of work out of the way. My day has already been successful before many teens get out of bed. Even in my darkest days I can’t imagine wasting away my mornings, the most valuable part of the day.

The Habits That helped me beat exhaustion:

Eat a good breakfast

Teenagers are wrecking their whole day right after they wake up. When you have been asleep all night your body is in a fasted state and is looking for fuel. Many teens either don’t eat anything, which wrecks their energy levels and leaves them tired, hungry, and irritable for the rest of the day. Or they stuff their body with a processed and sugary breakfast. It’s like charging your phone for five minutes and expecting it to last all day. It seems fine at first, but it drains instantly, leaving you on dead for the rest of the day.

Just a simple meal within two hours of waking up with some protein, slow-digesting carbs, and healthy fats can destroy grogginess and fuel your day. Protein keeps blood sugar stable and prevents that mid-morning crash. Good carbs give long, stable energy instead of a sugar rush. And healthy fats slow digestion and give your brain steady fuel. Some of my favorite breakfast meals are Greek yogurt with banana and berries, eggs scrambled with veggies and toast, or oatmeal with honey and protein powder. A solid breakfast can provide stable energy levels for your day.

Form a consistent Sleep Schedule

I will stay out late once in a while if my friends have plans and I have nothing important the next day. But going to bed at inconsistent times means your body never settles into a routine. Your system thrives on patterns; it wants to recognize, “oh, it’s bedtime, let’s wind down.” When that rhythm is constantly shifting, your body gets confused, making it harder to fall asleep quickly, stay asleep deeply, and feel rested the next morning.

According to the National Institute of Health, more than half of teens report a weekday-weekend sleep shift of over two hours, which seriously throws off your internal clock.

There is an easy, reliable, science-backed method to fix even the worst sleep schedule. Move your bedtime 15 minutes earlier every two to three nights. Keep doing that until, slowly but surely, you reach your target sleep time. Most people fail because they try to jump from 1 a.m. to 10 p.m. overnight. It’s small steps that change your brain.

Pick a fixed wake-up time (even on weekends). This is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to improve your sleep schedule. Your body’s internal clock depends on consistency, and waking up at the same time every day trains it to know exactly when to feel alert and when to feel tired.

Keep Your Bed for Sleep Only

I was going to bed early with a consistent sleep schedule, but I still wasn’t falling asleep easily. One simple mistake was ruining my nights: I was using my bed for work. Once I stopped doing homework, writing, and studying in bed, or even in my bedroom, my sleep improved instantly.

When you blur the line between work and rest, your brain doesn’t know when to shut off. But if you use your bed, and ideally your whole bedroom, only for sleeping, your brain forms a clear association. The moment you lie down, it recognizes that it’s time to fall asleep. Many teens lay in bed for hours scrolling or studying, and it wrecks their sleep without them realizing it. I began working at the kitchen table or on the porch and left my bed for sleeping.

Stop Caffeine After 2 p.m.

Caffeine stays in your body for much longer than most people realize. And teens are consuming more caffeine than ever before through coffees, increasingly popular energy drinks, soda, and even caffeine hidden in snacks. According to Axios, hospitalizations due to caffeine consumption roughly doubled among adolescents in the past few years.

Your body builds up a chemical called adenosine throughout the day. Adenosine makes you feel tired at night. Caffeine blocks adenosine from attaching to your brain, so you feel awake even if your body is exhausted. But the adenosine doesn’t disappear. It builds up behind the scenes. When the caffeine wears off, it all hits you at once. Crash.

Teen brains and bodies break down caffeine more slowly than adults. Caffeine makes it harder to fall asleep, but it also lowers the quality of the sleep you do get. I used to think caffeine was like magic. I could work later without getting tired. It was a great boost, but it turns out you pay in the long term.

Get Physical Activity

Exercise doesn’t drain your energy; it creates it. When teens aren’t active, their body and brain shift into a low-power mode, which makes them feel tired all day. When I get some light exercise in the morning, I feel more energized for the rest of the day.

Exercise burns off stress hormones like cortisol. Without movement, teens feel stressed and anxious. Chronic stress causes people to feel wired at night and exhausted in the morning. Exercise is like releasing the steam from a hot kettle, which is your brain.

When you work out, your nervous system shifts into a controlled, energized state. It trains your body to know the difference between time to lock in and time for rest. Lack of physical activity throws your hormones out of whack. Exercise boosts the hormones that make you feel awake and happy such as dopamine and serotonin. Without movement, these drop. That’s why inactivity makes you feel tired, stressed, and irritable.

Physical activity increases blood flow to your muscles and brain. When you sit all day, your body stays in a low-circulation state, which makes you feel sluggish and unmotivated.

I found that some light exercise in the morning helps a lot. I like to go for a jog, but even a walk or some pushups can energize you way more than a cup of coffee. It signals to your brain that it’s time to lock in.

Avoid Screens and Late-Night Scrolling

The thing you’re holding right now is one of the biggest culprits of why teens are chronically exhausted. Phones and devices are a major part of practically every teenager’s life, including mine. According to a survey by Gallup, teens spend an average of five hours a day online, but the real problem lies in the time of day they spend online.

Late-night screen use wrecks deep sleep. Phones, tablets, and laptops shine blue light straight into your eyes, which shuts down melatonin, the hormone that tells your brain it’s time to sleep.

It also causes overstimulation. Scrolling videos and switching apps every few seconds keeps your brain in a constant high-alert mode, causing your brain to get used to nonstop dopamine. When you finally try to sleep, your brain can’t slow down. And during the day, you feel drained because your brain is burnt out.

Social media apps are designed to be addictive. A few minutes of scrolling before bed can often turn into hours before you even realize what’s happening.

Master the Morning

I value my mornings above any other part of the day. When you wake up, your body is the strongest, your mind is the most focused, and your willpower is the highest. In the morning your energy hasn’t been drained. Your morning decides your whole day. If you win the morning, you win the day.

I find that if I get some exercise and eat a healthy meal I am way happier and more likely to have a productive day. Your morning is the most important part of the day and many teens waste it. Then they wonder why they are always tired and depressed.

Things won’t change instantly, but if you follow these habits your body and mind will thank you. You will be more productive in school or work and happier overall. These habits changed my life and they can change yours.