• Posted September 17, 2025

Sleep Difficult For LGBTQ+ Teens, Study Says

LGBTQ+ teenagers in the United States might be losing sleep due to violence, bullying and rejection, a recent study says.

Gender and sexual minority teens are more likely to have trouble falling asleep at night, researchers reported in June in the Journal of Adolescence.

However, those teens who experienced more warmth and support from their families slept better, researchers found.

“Our work suggests that creating school and family environments that are safe and affirming could help LGBTQ+ adolescents sleep better, which is incredibly fundamental to positive health and development,” lead researcher Will Beischel, an assistant professor of social psychology at Loyola University in Chicago, said in a news release.

A lack of quality sleep has been linked to a wide range of mental and physical health problems among teenagers, researchers said in background notes.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from a survey of more than 11,000 U.S. teenagers conducted in 2017.

Results showed that violence, bullying, victimization, family rejection and lack of trusted adults at school or a gender-sexuality alliance all were associated with poorer sleep among LGBTQ+ teens.

Youth assigned female at birth reported slightly more trouble falling asleep in comparison to youth assigned male at birth, researchers found.

However, steps that supported these teens appeared to improve their sleep.

Familial acceptance, supportive adults at school and the ability to use the restroom that matches their gender identity all helped teens better fall asleep, results showed.

“Issues of restrictive restroom access negatively affect the mental health of gender minority youth, and our results suggest that restrictive policies and norms may work their way ‘under the skin’ through their association with sleep quality,” researchers wrote in their paper.

Beyond supportive policies that protect against bullying and discrimination, LGBTQ+ teens might benefit from counseling on good sleep hygiene and techniques that make it easier to get to sleep, researchers concluded.

“Our findings also point to the relevance of addressing the family context for understanding sleep outcomes,” they wrote. “Thus, family therapy may be especially beneficial for minoritized youth's sleep quality, considering the protective nature of familial warmth and the risk associated with family rejection for cisgender sexual minority youth.”

More information

The Sleep Foundation has more on the importance of sleep for teen health.

SOURCES: Wiley, news release, June 4, 2025; Journal of Adolescence, June 2025