A cross-sectional survey of 1,528 female and 1,566 male public high school students in suburban and rural Rhode Island suggests that sleep behaviors may also be related to employment (Carskadon, Mancuso, & Rosekind, 1989). (The ethnic composition of the participants was not detailed in the study report.) In this study, adolescents who worked 20 or more hours per week (high-work students) tended to sleep less and to get to bed later on both weekdays and weekends than did adolescents who worked less than 20 hours or not at all (Carskadon, et al., 1989). The high-work students were also more likely to report being late to school because of oversleeping, and more often fell asleep during the day at school or while doing homework. High-work students also tended to consume more coffee and tea.

In general, researchers tend to consider adolescent sleep deprivation the result of a clash between an increased need for sleep and the variety of time constraints imposed by employment, activities, homework, social involvement, and early school start times (Dahl, 1998; Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998).