A 17-year-old who wakes up at 6:30 AM should go to bed around 9:15 PM, and no later than 10:15 PM. For a 7:00 AM wake-up, that's 9:45 PM, and 10:45 PM at the latest. Teens aged 13 to 18 need 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and each bedtime here includes about 15 minutes to fall asleep.
These are the same numbers the kids bedtime calculator gives for a 17-year-old: a 9-hour target and an 8-hour latest. Seventeen is usually senior year: college applications, a part-time job, a car, and a bedtime the teen now sets for themselves. This page gives the numbers for each of those.
Free toolSleep Needs by AgeRecommended hours for every age, from newborns to over-65s.What time should a 17-year-old go to bed on a school night?
Count back 9 hours and 15 minutes from the wake-up time for the target, or 8 hours and 15 minutes for the latest bedtime. For a 6:30 AM alarm, that's 9:15 PM and 10:15 PM.
| Wake-up time | Earliest (10 h) | Target (9 h) | Latest (8 h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:45 AM | 7:30 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:30 PM |
| 6:00 AM | 7:45 PM | 8:45 PM | 9:45 PM |
| 6:15 AM | 8:00 PM | 9:00 PM | 10:00 PM |
| 6:30 AM | 8:15 PM | 9:15 PM | 10:15 PM |
| 6:45 AM | 8:30 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:30 PM |
| 7:00 AM | 8:45 PM | 9:45 PM | 10:45 PM |
| 7:30 AM | 9:15 PM | 10:15 PM | 11:15 PM |
The 9-hour column is the everyday target. The 8-hour column is the last bedtime that still meets the minimum, so treat it as the hard stop. A senior with a zero-period class or an early drive to school is often in the top rows, which is where the squeeze is worst.
What time should a 17-year-old go to bed and wake up?
A workable school-night schedule for most 17-year-olds is lights out at 9:15 PM and up at 6:30 AM, or 9:45 PM and 7:00 AM. Both give about 9 hours.
At 17, the useful move is handing the teen the math rather than a rule. If bedtime is the fixed point, add 15 minutes plus 9 hours to find the matching wake-up:
| Bedtime | 9 hours ends at | 8 hours ends at |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 PM | 6:45 AM | 5:45 AM |
| 10:00 PM | 7:15 AM | 6:15 AM |
| 10:30 PM | 7:45 AM | 6:45 AM |
| 11:00 PM | 8:15 AM | 7:15 AM |
| 11:30 PM | 8:45 AM | 7:45 AM |
A senior who can see that an 11:00 PM bedtime and a 6:30 AM alarm only leaves 7 hours 15 minutes is more likely to change something than one who's just told to go to bed. The hours of sleep calculator does this for any bedtime.
What time should a 17-year-old go to bed with a job?
Work backward from the end of the shift: allow about an hour and 15 minutes to get home, eat and wind down, then check the bedtime still fits the chart. For a 7:00 AM alarm, a shift ending at 9:30 PM is the latest that still allows 8 hours.
| Shift ends | Realistic lights out | Sleep before a 7:00 AM alarm |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 PM | 9:15 PM | 9 h 30 min |
| 9:00 PM | 10:15 PM | 8 h 30 min |
| 9:30 PM | 10:45 PM | 8 h |
| 10:00 PM | 11:15 PM | 7 h 30 min |
Practical limits for a working senior:
- Keep school-night closing shifts rare. Weekends are the better place for them.
- Do homework and applications before the shift, not after. Essays started at 11 PM are where a lot of senior-year sleep goes.
- Watch the caffeine at work. A soda or energy drink on a 7 PM break can still be active at an 11 PM bedtime.
Why drowsy driving is the big risk at 17
A 17-year-old driving home late after a long day is often more impaired than they feel, so a short night should change who drives. The American Academy of Pediatrics lists drowsy driving crashes among the main consequences of chronic sleep loss in teens and young adults.
Two numbers make it concrete. In a classic study, after about 17 hours awake, performance on a coordination task was as impaired as at a blood alcohol level of about 0.05%. A teen up at 6:30 AM who drives home from an 11:30 PM shift has been awake 17 hours. And when one large county moved high school start times an hour later, teens slept more and teen crash rates there fell 16.5% over the next two years, while rates in the rest of the state rose 7.8%.
House rules that help:
- Under about 7 hours of sleep means no driving the next morning, or no passengers.
- Late shift or away game? Arrange a ride, or a 20-minute nap before the drive home.
- Know the warning signs: heavy eyelids, drifting out of the lane, missing an exit, not remembering the last few miles.
Coffee and the radio aren't a fix. What actually helps, and when to pull over, is in how to stay awake while driving.
What time should a 17-year-old go to bed on the weekends?
Keep weekend wake-ups within about 1 to 2 hours of school days, and bedtime 9 hours and 15 minutes before that. A teen up at 6:30 on weekdays can sleep until 8:00 or 8:30 on Saturday without wrecking Monday.
| Weekend wake-up | Target bedtime (9 h) | Latest (8 h) |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 AM | 10:45 PM | 11:45 PM |
| 8:30 AM | 11:15 PM | 12:15 AM |
| 9:00 AM | 11:45 PM | 12:45 AM |
Seventeen-year-olds usually do have later weekend nights, and that's normal. The problem is sleeping until noon after them, which shifts the body clock later and makes Sunday night's bedtime impossible. Getting up by about 9:00 or 9:30 and taking a short early-afternoon nap is the better trade.
Getting ready for college sleep
Senior year is the last chance to practice running your own sleep schedule with a safety net. Freshman year rarely comes with a set bedtime, and a teen who already knows their own numbers starts with an advantage.
A good handover is simple: the teen picks the wake-up time, works out the bedtime from the chart, and owns it. Parents step in only when it clearly isn't working, such as falling asleep in class or nodding off at the wheel. Ages 13 to 17 are compared in what time should a teenager go to bed, and the kids bedtime calculator gives the window for any other wake-up.
When to talk to a doctor
Speak to your teen's doctor if they snore loudly or seem to stop breathing in sleep, fall asleep at the wheel or in class despite enough time in bed, or can't fall asleep for weeks at a time. A body clock that runs extremely late, with sleep starting at 2 or 3 AM most nights, is also worth raising.