BACKGROUND: Sleep disturbance may cause psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). The present study aimed to exam their rate of co-occurrence and investigate whether resilience buffers the association. METHODS: A total of 50,625 junior high school students were assessed using the self-compiled socio-demographics and sleep questionnaires, 8-item Positive Subscale of the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences, 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire. RESULTS: In this sample, 15.8% participants had frequent PLEs in the past month, where 40.1% exhibited comorbid sleep disturbance. Sleep disturbance positively associated with the onset of frequent PLEs, after adjusting for socio-demographics, depression and anxiety. Moderation analysis showed resilience buffers the association between sleep disturbance and PLEs, with a higher level of resilience, the positive effect of sleep disturbance on PLEs would be diminished to a greater extent. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that early attention should be drawn to adolescents with sleep disturbance. Intervention strategies should be enhancing resilience, increasing sleep duration and improving sleep quality.