According to the CDC, teens are experiencing a crisis in mental health. As parents, we struggle to protect our teens’ mental health, nurturing a lifestyle that will protect their mental health over their lifetime. This study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, suggests one of the simplest ways to protect teen mental health. Even more exciting, your teens will not fight it. They will love it. They’ve probably been asking for it for quite some time.

This one action significantly decreased the incidents of teens reporting symptoms of depression and even resulted in teens exhibiting a 41% lower risk of depressive symptoms. What is this magical action? Sleeping in on the weekends to make up for lost sleep.

Teens tend to “accumulate sleep debt” during the school week in response to academic demands, social activities, extracurricular activities, and even part-time work. That lack of sleep, their sleep debt, increases the risk of mental health symptoms including depression, suicidal ideation, relationship conflict, impulsive behaviors, and anxiety.

Now, thanks to this study, you can offer your teen an opportunity that will both protect their mental health and cause them to see you in a more favorable light (not always an easy task during those teen years). Let them sleep in on the weekend.