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August 12, 2025

Rested, Ready, and Present: Tackling Social Media and Tech’s Impact on Students’ Sleep and Attendance

    Key points summarized

  • Lack of sleep due to late-night screen use impacts students’ attendance, memory, and academic performance.
  • 93% of Gen Z admit to staying up past their bedtime due to social media, and 88% of educators report an increase in learning challenges among students with excessive screen use.
  • By huddling with students on tech use and empowering them to build healthy habits, educators can improve classroom engagement, support student well-being, and fuel academic success. 

 

Imagine this common (maybe even nightly) scenario for students: It’s 10:30 p.m. on a school night, and you planned to be asleep by 11 pm to get just enough rest. 

But a “quick” scroll on TikTok lasts one hour, and the next day you’re struggling to stay present – and awake – in class.

For students, devices can create temptation to stay up late chatting with friends, watching a YouTube series, or playing games. While social media and tech provide ways for students to connect, compromising sleep for a little extra screen time can impact students’ attendance, memory, and academic performance.

Let’s explore how late-night and excessive tech use affects student learning and well-being, plus innovative strategies for improving attendance and engagement in the classroom:

The Facts: Lack of Sleep and Absenteeism’s Impact on Learning

According to a 2024 scientific study, researchers found that excessive internet use and short sleep in teens are associated with an increase in unexcused absences in school. 

93% of Gen Z admit to staying up past their bedtime due to social media, and 88% of educators report an increase in learning challenges among students with excessive screen use. Educators see tech impact students’ learning in real-time, as K-12 schools across the country report tired students who aren’t ready to learn or an increase in absenteeism altogether.

As of 2023, 20 states reported that more than 30% of their students had chronic absenteeism, where students miss 10% or more of school. When students experience chronic absenteeism, especially year after year, it can hinder their academic success and increase their dropout risk. While there are multiple factors that contribute to chronic absenteeism, students’ health and well-being are a common denominator.

The Bottom Line: When Students Feel Their Best, They Learn Their Best

Lack of sleep due to late-night screen use not only impacts students’ ability to learn in the short term, but it can also contribute to physical and mental illnesses in the long term that increase the likelihood of student absenteeism.

The big question now for educators? How can we empower students to strike a balance with their devices and minimize screen use, especially right before bed? 

It all starts with building healthy tech habits.

The Fix: Building Healthier Tech Habits, One Night at a Time

Building healthy habits beyond the classroom to positively impact their abilities in the classroom starts with equipping students with the skills and confidence to make their own high-character choices. Rather than focusing on ‘don’ts,’ huddle with students to co-create expectations around tech use that fuel their goals, boost well-being, and strengthen their overall health. Here’s how:

Encourage mindful nighttime routines: Help students understand the science behind sleep. Blue light from screens delays melatonin production, making it harder to fall asleep. Talk with students about setting boundaries that work for them, like winding down with music, journaling, or using ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode an hour before bed.

Help families in your community set tech standards together: Rather than enforcing blanket rules, families can co-create agreements about when and where devices are used, especially at night. Plus, making students part of the decision-making process boosts buy-in and makes the guidelines more likely to stick.

  • PRO TIP: Share The Social Institute’s Family Standards Agreement with parents and guardians in your school community, so students are empowered to strike a balance at home!

Promote attendance through connection, not compliance: Research shows students are more likely to attend classes when they feel safe, supported, and seen. Schools that prioritize student well-being, through trusted adult relationships, classroom huddles, and inclusive tech conversations, build stronger attendance cultures.

  • PRO TIP: Huddle in 10-15 increments with your students about all things social media, tech, A.I., and well-being with The Social Institute’s positive and proactive approach to building modern life skills. Request a demo today > 

Teach students how sleep fuels their goals: From sports performance to mental clarity, students should see rest as a tool for success. Empower them to reflect on how they feel after a good night’s sleep versus staying up late, and how that impacts their energy, memory, and motivation.

Your Next Steps: Empower Students to Strike a Balance with Their Devices

Tech isn’t going anywhere, and when students learn to use tech positively and responsibly, it becomes a tool to fuel their success, rather than hinder it. Educators and families can guide students to understand the link between screen use, sleep, and attendance, all while strengthening their decision-making and control skills. 

You can empower students to think critically about how social media and tech impact their daily lives with #WinAtSocial: A peer-to-peer learning platform that equips students with the modern life skills to fuel their future success. Request a demo today to create a school culture where showing up, rested and ready, is something students want to do.

The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in equipping students, families, and educators with modern life skills to impact learning, well-being, and students’ futures. Through #WinAtSocial, our interactive, peer-to-peer learning platform, we integrate teacher PD, family resources, student voice insights, and more to empower entire school communities to make positive choices online and offline. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach essential skills while capturing student voice and actionable insights for educators. These insights help educators maintain a healthy school culture, foster high-impact teaching, and build meaningful relationships with families. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips students authentically, enabling our solution to increase classroom participation and improve student-teacher relationships. Through our one-of-a-kind lesson development process, we create lessons for a variety of core and elective classes, incorporating timely topics such as social media, A.I., screen time, misinformation, and current events to help schools stay proactive in supporting student health, happiness, and academic success.