Purpose <p>Sufficient sleep is associated with improved development, health, and quality of life (QoL). The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to describe prior-night sleep duration according to sleep recommendations across socioeconomic status (SES), age, gender and screen time use among Norwegian pre-adolescents and (2) to explore the association between reported prior-night sleep duration with QoL and school factors stratified by gender.</p> Methods <p>Cross-sectional data was aggregated from the Norwegian Ungdata Junior Survey, collected in 2024. In total, 45,185 children aged between 10 and 12 years provided self-reported data anonymously by filling out an electronic/online questionnaire during school hours.</p> Results <p>About half of the study sample (53.1%) reported adherence to international sleep recommendations for children aged 10 to 12 years, with somewhat higher adherence among boys than girls(54.5% vs. 51.8%, p &lt; 0.01). Results from binary regressions revealed positive associations related to QoL and school factors among children adhering to sleep recommendations compared to ones not adhering, with adjusted odds ratio ranging from 1.33 to 1.79 (all p &lt; 0.01).</p> Conclusions <p>In this population-based sample of Norwegian children aged 10 to 12 years, approximately half reported not achieving the recommended 9 to 12 h of sleep per night. Reporting prior-night sleep duration in accordance to the international sleep recommendations were strongly associated with higher QoL and positive school related factors among boys and girls, but particularly strong among girls. These findings emphasize the vital role of adequate sleep among pre-adolescents for QoL and optimizing school contexts, offering valuable insight for future practice and policy.</p>