My teenager is on their phone all night. What can we change?

By Sean Corbett

A practical way to agree a bedtime phone routine with a young person aged 11 to 18. About 7 minutes to read.

If you read nothing else

There is no single bedtime phone rule that fits every teenager. Research suggests that using a screen after bedtime can delay sleep, but it does not show that every minute of evening phone use harms every young person. Start with what is actually getting in the way: a conversation that keeps going, notifications after lights-out, gaming in bed, or a phone picked up because sleep was already difficult.

Agree one manageable change with your teenager and review whether it was practical after a week. Keep essential contact, alarms, accessibility features and health-related functions available. Treat this as a household experiment, not a treatment or a promise of better sleep.

A note on scope

This article offers general information and ideas for a family conversation. It is not medical advice and cannot explain why a particular young person is struggling to sleep. The organisations and resources linked here are starting points that may be worth a look. A link does not mean Luminae endorses every statement, service or setting, and you should check that the guidance fits your location, your teenager’s age and your circumstances.

Start with what is happening at bedtime

Imagine a 14-year-old who uses their phone as an alarm and wants to remain in a group chat. A parent asks for the phone to be left downstairs. The teenager hears that they must choose between following the rule and staying connected. The useful question is not simply, “How many hours were you on your phone?” It is, “What is the phone doing when you are trying to sleep?”

Ask your teenager what tends to happen:

Are they replying, watching, gaming or doing homework when they meant to start sleeping?
Do notifications or calls wake them after they have fallen asleep?
Are they reaching for the phone because they are already awake or worried?
Which overnight contact is genuinely important, and which messages could wait?

Ask them to describe the pattern before you reach for controls or inspect messages. Morning tiredness and recurring interruptions can help you decide what to try, but they cannot prove that the phone caused a sleep problem.

Try one change, not a perfect rule

Luminae’s suggestion is to choose one small change together and return to the conversation after a week. A week is simply a manageable review point; it is not a clinically tested duration. Keep the change specific enough to explain in one sentence.

If alerts are the problem, quiet the non-essential ones and agree which people must still be able to make contact.
If using the phone in bed is the problem, agree where it will rest when your teenager intends to sleep. “Out of bed” does not have to mean “outside the room”.
If a conversation keeps running late, agree what your teenager can say to friends and when they expect to reply again.
If the phone is used because sleep is already difficult, do not assume that another restriction will address the underlying problem.

Before relying on a setting, check together that the alarm, essential calls and any accessibility or health-related functions still work. If an essential function is uncertain, leave it available while you check the official instructions.

Review what happened

At the review, ask whether the change was workable, whether overnight interruptions changed and how mornings felt. Keep it, adjust it or drop a poor fit. You do not need to count every minute or inspect private messages. One household trial cannot prove a cause or rule out a health problem.

Work with what you have. A shared bedroom may offer little space; the phone may be the only alarm; a parent working nights may need to call; a young person may rely on communication support. A useful plan preserves the function that matters and does not require a new device. Including adults’ own overnight phone habits can make the conversation feel more credible.

Share responsibility as they grow

These are practical suggestions, not research-derived age cut-offs.

Ages 11 to 13. Choose and set up one change together. Make sure the young person knows how to reach a trusted adult overnight.

Ages 14 to 15. Ask about friends’ expectations and let the young person help decide how to manage them.

Ages 16 to 17. Invite the young person to lead the experiment and decide what they want to notice.

At 18. Treat support as voluntary and agree shared-household expectations as you would with another adult. Do not assume you should control their account.

Words you could use

You might ask: “What would make tonight easier while keeping the contact you need?” Then: “Which part would you change first? Shall we try that until next week and see whether it fits?” These are prompts to adapt, not a tested script.

If the first idea is rejected, ask which part creates a problem. An alarm, a late call from another household or a conversation with friends needs a specific answer. Keep returning to the bedtime problem you are trying to solve.

What the evidence can and cannot tell us

The most useful recent overview is a 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in JAMA Pediatrics. Across 25 studies involving 4,562 people aged 3 to 25, more screen use on a given day had a small association with later sleep onset. It was not significantly associated with total sleep time, sleep efficiency, time awake after sleep began or reported sleep quality. Because the age range is broad and the results are correlations, the review does not give parents a universal cut-off or prove that a restriction will improve an individual teenager’s sleep.

A 2024 New Zealand study of 79 young people aged 11 to 14.9 found that screen use in the two hours before bed was not associated with most sleep measures that night. Use once in bed, particularly interactive use, was associated with later sleep and less total sleep. It was a small observational study, so it cannot show that removing a phone causes sleep to improve or establish effects for older teenagers.

An earlier 2023 systematic review of prospective studies also found mixed results and generally weak study quality. Taken together, the evidence supports paying attention to timing, context and what happens in bed. It does not support presenting every form of evening screen use as equally harmful.

When a routine is not enough

If sleep difficulties continue, cause marked distress or make everyday life hard to manage, speak with the young person’s GP or usual healthcare professional. Do not make finishing the household experiment a condition of getting help. This article does not diagnose or treat sleep difficulties.

For UK readers, the NHS page on insomnia is worth a look for general information about when to contact a GP. It is not a child-specific assessment and does not replace advice from your local practice.

For readers in the United States, the American Academy of Pediatrics page on healthy sleep habits is worth a look as general professional guidance. It is US guidance and should not be treated as an individual assessment.

Official device guidance worth a look

If you decide to use a device setting, start with the provider’s current instructions. Apple’s UK Screen Time guidance and Google’s Family Link screen-time guidance describe their own tools. Check the software version, account type and supervision arrangement that apply to your device. These pages explain settings; they are not evidence that a setting will improve sleep.