My book is now out in Japan! So excited to receive my copies, and to help tired Japanese teens and their parents get more sleep.

Reminder of the day, from last week's newsletter. (Read here: open.substack.com/pub/letstalk...).

Picture, 1,000 words, etc.

Have you seen the latest data on teen sleep? New research shows that teen sleep loss is even more pronounced than what had previously been reported. Far too many teens are getting less than 7 hours of sleep – and even less than 5 hours!

A new study in JAMA shows that the number of severely sleep-deprived teens is even higher than what we already knew. I've got the quick recap in my latest newsletter, out today. Read/subscribe for free: letstalksleep.substack.com

You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to recognize that sleep provides a competitive advantage! For everyone from recreational exercisers to weekend warriors, sleep boosts athletic performance. Read more in my latest newsletter, out today. letstalksleep.substack.com/p/olympic-at...

Solidarity from California (picture taken earlier today)

On the heels of Drowsy Driving Awareness Week comes this article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle about a driver falling asleep while driving the train. Even a microsleep (involuntary, can be less than a second) can have severe consequences while your car (or train) is still moving forward!

Part of a museum display at SFO … feeling old 😂

Decades of research have found that acetaminophen is safe for children when administered as recommended. Misleading claims link the medicine to autism. These false claims send a dangerous message to parents and does a disservice to autistic individuals. www.aap.org/en/news-room...

Current view

Love the lede in @gailcornwall.com's latest . . . plus her thoughtful look at what kids gain when they no longer can access their phones during school hours.

Welp, the California state legislature passed the bill today to authorize putting redistricting on the November ballot, and the first anti-redistricting mailer showed up in our mailbox this afternoon

Saw that today is World Brain Day and looked up coverage, and one of the top results said “Brain-eating amoeba found in South Carolina,” which feels very on brand for 2025

More than half of the teens in the study went online when they woke in the middle of the night! We’ve known for some time that the best practices for sleep include getting devices out of the bedroom, and these latest results really underscore why.

My mid-summer news recap on four new sleep studies is now out. Subscribe for free to read more about new studies on screen use, weekend sleep, parent involvement and long-term health. letstalksleep.substack.com/subscribe

Did you know that for $5/month, you can get PBS Passport, a service that unlocks the vastness of the @pbs.org libraries? Feed your mind while you help PBS stay on the air.

A small good thing in the midst of everything: this flyer, deposited in our mailbox yesterday. Two immediate thoughts: 1. These kids aren’t on their screens! 2. AI may be taking over a lot of functions, but it still can't make cookies and lemonade. (And P.S. yes, we’ll be stopping by!)

This will “effectively gut the department, which manages federal loans for college, tracks student achievement and enforces civil rights laws in schools.” 😢 It’s not like students are our future or anything … www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...

We are DELIBERATELY regressing. “Researchers often think of measles as the proverbial canary in a coal mine. It is often the first sign that other vaccine-preventable diseases, like pertussis and Hib meningitis, might soon become more common.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/w...

pretty terrifying.

Interesting detail for US readers: It seems Iranians have a legislative branch that plays a part in war/peace decisions. Imagine that! __ Quaint background: 2002, Congress debated/voted on Iraq war. Bad outcome, but they had a voice. 2012: Cong insisted on right to review 'Iran deal,' JCPOA.

Are there any crafters in the audience...? Anyone...? Asking for a friend. 🦝 #Feral #CivilDisobedience #PeacefulRainbowGlitterOfLoveAndJoy

#nokings Larkspur, CA

Starting off well-rested (i.e., with more sleep “in the bank”) isn’t a perfect solution: Sleep isn’t a commodity to be neatly deposited & then retrieved when needed. However, sleep banking can help cushion the pending shortfall vs. when you start off already exhausted!

There’s a bidirectional relationship between sleep and mental-health: You can’t look at mental-health issues without looking at sleep, and the reverse is also true. Read more in this month’s free newsletter, out today, and also find out more about my upcoming events. (Link to read: bit.ly/4329xMD)

“And I’m like, what do you mean, you ‘do your own research’? You running a double-blind study in your living room, dawg?” - A guy walking ahead of me with his friends on a NYC sidewalk in 2021, also my favorite overheard dialogue of the entire pandemic

When I visit schools to talk about sleep/wellness, I love hearing directly from students. Recently, I asked the kids to write down what they wanted their parents to know. One response: “I need time to relax! I have so much to do in the day and it’s so stressful.” Reminder: They need downtime too.

Anyone else having trouble sleeping lately?!

Are you a woman who changed your name when you got married? Congress is considering a bill that could make it much harder for you to vote. Call your rep—this is not a drill. indivisible.org/resource/cal...

The teen brain undergoes a MASSIVE, multiyear remodel. This takes place at different times: the prefrontal cortex, which regulates emotions, lags behind the amygdala (AKA the brain’s emotion center). Teens feel things more intensely as a result. (And this is heightened when they’re sleep-deprived!)

Sign of the day…

#handsoff San Francisco

Straight down seems bad

Today's PR pitch in my inbox that I will NOT be following up on: "Unlock Muscle Gains with SWOLY Creatine Gummies!"

What to know about sleepmaxxing in this month’s newsletter, out today, plus info on events: bit.ly/3YcJv7A

Remember that dragginess you felt when the clocks lurched forward an hour recently? Adjusting was equivalent to adjusting to 1 hr of jet lag. There’s a similar dynamic when you sleep later on the weekends and have to adjust when your alarm clock goes off on Monday morning. Read more: bit.ly/4hv9sGy

Still pretty loopy after having two teeth extracted today

Sadly, this is mostly false. If you’re waking earlier than you really want to during the week, you may want to sleep late on the weekend. “Catching up” is a bit of a misnomer, though, especially if you’ve built up a large sleep debt over the course of the week. More here: bit.ly/4igFSFT

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

I’m shutting down my Twitter account (to me, it will always be Twitter — sniff). My pinned post there was when my book was featured in the Sunday New York Times Book Review 🎉, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to share it here!

After a recent school visit, I asked middle-schoolers to write down what they wanted their parents to know. Here’s 1 response: a GREAT reminder! And it's backed by research: Parent-set bedtimes help younger teens get more sleep (about 20 minutes more) + help keep bedtimes from drifting as late

House Dems' text chains lighting up with apoplexy. "Complete and utter meltdown," says one member. Members floating marching onto the Senate floor. Others urging primaries not just for Schumer, but any Senate Dem who votes for the GOP bill. @Axios.com www.axios.com/2025/03/14/h...

A YES on cloture is a YES for the bill. Do not let anyone play games with you.

Such a welcome surprise to see a reader post about The Sleep-Deprived Teen this week! I’m verklempt!

‘Going for Blood’: With Half of its Staff Cut, Many Wonder How Ed Dept. Will Function www.the74million.org/article/depa...

Devastating news! This basically guts the Department of Education .

If you’re still feeling the effects of the time shift, you’re not alone. Adjusting after we “spring forward” is the equivalent of adjusting to an hour of jet lag – it can take up to a week! #daylightsavings #sleep

As I wrote in the Los Angeles Times, we’re all tired of sleep loss in the spring and the hassle and confusion of changing our clocks. That’s why doing away with twice-yearly time changes comes up as regularly as clockwork. But year-round daylight-saving time isn’t the answer. 🧵