Teenagers in the US are getting less sleep than ever

A study showed that teenagers in the US are getting less sleep than they ever have.

American teens don't get enough sleep, and the problem has only gotten worse since the 1990s, new research shows.

Just 63 percent of 15-year-olds reported getting seven or more hours of sleep a night in 2012. That number is down from 72 percent in 1991, according to the study.

Regardless of the time period studied, the number of teens reporting seven or more hours of sleep nosedives between the ages of 13 and 18, the study showed. At 13, roughly two-thirds of teens get at least seven hours of sleep a night; by 18 that percentage drops to about one-third.

"After age 16, the majority are not meeting the recommended guidelines," said study author Katherine Keyes, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

Sleep experts have noted that too little sleep boosts the risk of weight gain, poor school performance, depression and other problems.

The study is published online Feb. 16 in Pediatrics.

For the study, researchers from Columbia University looked at sleep data from a national survey of more than 270,000 teens from 1991 to 2012. Each year, teens reported how often they got seven or more hours of sleep, as well as how often they got less sleep than they need.

The most recent recommendation from the National Sleep Foundation says teens aged 14 to 17 need eight to 10 hours a night and people aged 18 to 25 need seven to nine hours.

The largest declines in those getting enough sleep occurred between 1991 through 2000; then the problem plateaued, Keyes said.

The researchers also found gender differences in sleep. "Girls are less likely to get an adequate amount of sleep compared to boys," she said.

Both boys and girls whose parents had less education were not as likely to get enough sleep. Keyes found racial differences, too, with black and Hispanic teens less likely than others to get enough sleep.

One worrisome finding, she said, was that some teens who weren't getting enough sleep often thought their sleep duration was fine.

Keyes did not have access to information about the teens' use of electronic media, a factor often blamed for lack of sleep as teens text, check social media, play video games and work on laptops late into the night. However, that might be a factor, she said.

"On an individual level, excessive use of technology may impair an adolescent's ability to sleep," Keyes said.

The study findings aren't surprising, said Dr. Marcel Deray, a pediatric neurologist and director of the sleep disorders center at Miami Children's Hospital.

Deray said that while this study didn't offer information about whether electronic use is to blame for teens' lack of sleep, an American Academy of Pediatrics report in 2014 cited technology, along with caffeine use and other habits, as contributing factors in teen sleep deprivation. Deray said instructing teens to stop all electronic media use by at least an hour before bed might help.

Another issue? Early school start times can play havoc with teens' sleep, according to Deray.

Like some other experts, Deray said later school start times -- even an hour later -- could help teens get more sleep. Teens naturally go to sleep later, he said, due to their sleep cycles and the release of the hormone melatonin. "When we fall asleep, melatonin goes up. Teens make it later, so they tend to be night owls," Deray said.

Left alone, he said, teens would go to sleep later and get up later. Starting school an hour later, for instance at 8:30 a.m., is an approach favored by the American Academy of Pediatrics and would likely help, he added.

Lack of sleep is linked with many other health problems for teens, he said, including obesity, car accidents, depression and a drop in school performance.

Parents of teens can educate their children about not overscheduling, limiting caffeine before bed and having a bedtime routine, just as they did when they were younger, Keyes said.

Deray said teens can also try to get up by 9 a.m. on the weekend and to expose themselves to sunlight in the morning, helping to make them sleepier earlier at night.

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The link between not getting enough sleep and diabetes

Not getting enough sleep causes changes in the body which can mimic diabetes thus explaining the link between the two.

Lack of sleep can elevate levels of free fatty acids in the blood, accompanied by temporary pre-diabetic conditions in healthy young men, according to new research published online February 19, 2015, in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

The study, the first to examine the impact of sleep loss on 24-hour fatty acid levels in the blood, adds to emerging evidence that insufficient sleep -- a highly prevalent condition in modern society -- may disrupt fat metabolism and reduce the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugars. It suggests that something as simple as getting enough sleep could help counteract the current epidemics of diabetes and obesity.

"At the population level, multiple studies have reported connections between restricted sleep, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes," said Esra Tasali, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study. "Experimental laboratory studies, like ours, help us unravel the mechanisms that may be responsible."

The researchers found that after three nights of getting only four hours of sleep, blood levels of fatty acids, which usually peak and then recede overnight, remained elevated from about 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. As long as fatty acid levels remained high, the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugars was reduced.

The results provide new insights into the connections, first described by University of Chicago researchers 15 years ago, between sleep loss, insulin resistance and heightened risk of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers recruited 19 healthy male subjects between the ages of 18 and 30. These volunteers were monitored through two scenarios in randomized order. In one, they got a full night's rest -- 8.5 hours in bed (averaging 7.8 hours asleep) during four consecutive nights. In the other, they spent just 4.5 hours in bed (averaging 4.3 hours asleep) for four consecutive nights. The two studies were spaced at least four weeks apart.

Each subject's sleep was carefully monitored, diet was strictly controlled and blood samples were collected at 15 or 30 minute intervals for 24 hours, starting on the evening of the third night of each study. The researchers measured blood levels of free fatty acids and growth hormone, glucose and insulin, and the stress hormones noradrenaline and cortisol. After four nights in each sleep condition, an intravenous glucose-tolerance test was performed.

They found that sleep restriction resulted in a 15 to 30 percent increase in late night and early morning fatty acid levels. The nocturnal elevation of fatty acids (from about 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.) correlated with an increase in insulin resistance -- a hallmark of pre-diabetes -- that persisted for a nearly five hours.

Cutting back on sleep prolonged nighttime growth hormone secretion and led to an increase in noradrenaline in the blood, both of which contributed to the increase in fatty acid levels.

Although glucose levels were unchanged, the ability of available insulin to regulate blood glucose levels decreased by about 23 percent after a short sleep, "suggesting," the authors note, "an insulin-resistant state."

"It definitely looks like a packaged deal," said the study's lead author, Josiane Broussard, PhD, a former graduate student at the University of Chicago who is now a post-doctoral research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute in Los Angeles.

"Curtailed sleep produced marked changes in the secretion of growth hormone and levels of noradrenaline -- which can increase circulating fatty acids," Broussard said. "The result was a significant loss of the benefits of insulin. This crucial hormone was less able to do its job. Insulin action in these healthy young men resembled what we typically see in early stages of diabetes."

Plasma free or non-esterified fatty acids are an important energy source for most body tissues. The demand for fatty acids goes up during exercise, for example, where they are used by cardiac and skeletal muscle; this preserves glucose for use by the brain. But constantly elevated fatty-acid levels in the blood are usually seen only in obese individuals as well as those with type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease. A 2012 study by a related research team emphasized the connections between sleep loss and the disruption of human fat cell function in energy regulation.

"This study opens the door to several intriguing questions," according to a Commentary in the journal by sleep specialists Jonathan Jun, MD, and Vsevolod Polotsky, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Could variations in individual responses to short sleep explain susceptibility to metabolic consequences? Could dysregulation of fatty acid metabolism represent a common pathway linking various sleep disorders to metabolic syndrome? And why don't clinicians routinely ask their patients about sleep?

The study provides evidence for "potential mechanisms by which sleep restriction may be associated with insulin resistance and increased type 2 diabetes risk," the authors conclude. It supports the growing sense that insufficient sleep may disrupt fat metabolism. And it suggests that an intervention as simple as getting enough sleep could counteract the current epidemics of diabetes and obesity.

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Young kids' sleep and obesity

Young kids not getting enough sleep could lead to obesity later in life.

Lack of sleep and sleep-related breathing problems appear to boost children's risk of obesity, a new study finds.

What isn't clear from the study, however, is whether the sleep issues actually cause obesity, or if something else might explain the association between sleep problems and obesity.

Researchers analyzed data from about 1,900 youngsters in England. The researchers had about 15 years of follow-up on the children. Those who got the least amount of sleep at ages 5 and 6 had between a 60 percent and 100 percent increased risk of being obese at age 15. (For children aged 5 or 6, fewer than 10.5 hours of sleep a night is considered too little, according to the researchers.)

Children who got too little sleep at other ages were not at increased risk for obesity, according to the study.

The researchers also found that one-quarter of the children were at increased risk of obesity due to sleep-related breathing problems such as snoring and sleep apnea. Those with the most severe sleep-related breathing problems were twice as likely to become obese by ages 7, 10 and 15.

The risk was slightly lower in children whose sleep-related breathing problems peaked at ages 5 or 6, but was still 60 percent to 80 percent higher than among those without sleep-related breathing problems.

The researchers didn't look at whether children with both these risk factors had a higher risk of obesity than those with just one of the risk factors.

"In recent years, lack of sleep has become a well-recognized risk for childhood obesity," study author Karen Bonuck, a professor of family and social medicine, and obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said in a college news release.

"We know that the road to obesity often begins early in life. Our research strengthens the case that insufficient sleep and SDB (sleep-disordered breathing) -- especially when present early in childhood -- increase the risk for becoming obese later in childhood," she added.

"If impaired sleep in childhood is conclusively shown to cause future obesity, it may be vital for parents and physicians to identify sleep problems early, so that corrective action can be taken and obesity prevented. With childhood obesity hovering at 17 percent in the United States, we're hopeful that efforts to address both of these risk factors could have a tremendous public health impact," Bonuck concluded.

A common cause of sleep-related breathing problems in children is enlarged tonsils or adenoids. If these are a problem, they can be removed through surgery. Another possible cause is misalignment of the jaws and teeth. This problem can be treated with a night guard or orthodontics.

Learning good sleep habits can help children get adequate sleep, Bonuck said.

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Why students need to get enough sleep

This article explains why it is so important for young adults, especially students, need to get enough sleep.

Humans need sleep. Young adults especially need it, and more  of it if possible. While growth spurts may be over, teenaged brains are still developing, and they will not fully mature until a person’s mid-20s, at the least. While students are in school trying to expand their minds, the very structure of their brains is expanding at the same time. Young adults need to balance academics with their sleep, which actually aids in learning and development. It may often seem like these two activities are at odds with each other, but their correlation is important.

Young adults have odd sleeping schedules, and it is not completely their fault. Developing brains of adolescents are wired to go to sleep later. When combined with heavy collegiate workloads, freedom from parental restrictions and the atmosphere of the city that never sleeps, it is no wonder that NYU students often go to sleep extremely late. While late bedtimes alone can be troubling, affecting everything from throwing off our circadian rhythms to our immune systems, this issue is compounded during the winter time. Moreover, students from warmer regions with longer days and shorter nights may not be aware of the effects the winter can have on one’s system. By going to bed late, young adults exacerbate these effects, which can lead to medical issues.

Seasonal affective disorder — a form of depression caused by changes in seasons — is among the potential complications. It can be triggered by a variety of factors, including an unnatural sleep schedule and decreased exposure to light. Symptoms of seasonal affective disorder usually manifest during fall and winter, and deficient sleep during this period can make individuals more vulnerable to depression. Research indicates that going to bed late when the sun sets later is not necessarily problematic. An 11 a.m. wake-up time gives one plenty of sunlight to maintain proper Vitamin D levels and circadian rhythm. Going to bed late when the sun goes down early is a recipe for disaster, however, because an 11 a.m. wake-up time means five hours of sunlight at the most. Students should be wary of seasonal affective disorder and take sleep seriously. Depression in the middle of a semester can jeopardize both academics and social life.

In college, personal well-being is seldom prioritized. This should not be the case — sleep is an essential tool for physical and mental health. Sleeping in late for Palladium brunch rather than waking up to an early breakfast may seem preferable, but a balanced sleep schedule can literally make winter much brighter. Suspend late-night study sessions, close Netflix and go to sleep — your mind and body will be grateful.

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The cost of not getting enough sleep for all ages

This article explains how much sleep a person needs by how old they are, and the health consequences of not getting the sleep you need.

Most Americans who spend part of the year on daylight saving time look forward to the extra hour of sleep when it's time to "fall back" to standard time. We are a nation of sleep-deprived people, and experts at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center say all ages suffer in various, unhealthy ways.

"For children, sleep deprivation can lead to behavior problems, trouble focusing and learning in school and it can affect their immune systems," said Dr. Aneesa Das, a sleep medicine specialist at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center. "Chronic tiredness makes it harder to cope and process what's going on around you."

When children enter the teen years, sleep becomes a bigger issue. Das says a teen's circadian rhythm, or internal body clock, tells them to stay awake later and sleep later than children and adults do. She says only 15 percent of teenagers get the recommended sleep they need.

"Sleep is time the body uses to restore itself. Muscles and other tissues repair themselves, hormones that control growth, development and appetite are released. Energy is restored and memories are solidified, so we need to try to get regular sleep on a regular basis," Das said.

For adults, sleep loss is even more serious. It accumulates over the years and has been shown to contribute to several chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and obesity. Adulthood is also when sleep-related disorders, such as insomnia or sleep apnea, are more likely. During menopause, women often experience night sweats and insomnia due to changing levels of hormones. As men age, an enlarged prostate can lead to more frequent trips to the bathroom overnight. Certain medications can also disrupt sleep, such as those for heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure and asthma.

"Adult sleep gets more fragmented, or interrupted during the night," Das said. "This could be caused by a medical condition, caring for young children, light and noise disturbance, pets or just the stress of the day."

Here are the recommended hours of sleep we should get throughout our lifetime, according to the National Sleep Foundation:

• Infants: up to 16 hours total, including naps
• Toddlers (1-3 yrs): 12-14 hours, including naps
• Preschool (3-5 yrs): 11-13 hours, most do not nap after age 5
• School-age (5-12 yrs): 10-11 hours
• Teens: 8.5-9.5 hours
• Adults: 7-9 hours

To improve the chances of getting a good night's sleep, Das offers a few tips: don't perform vigorous exercise within four hours of bedtime; have a wind down routine that includes dim light; avoid using tablets, phones and laptops before bed because they emit blue light that interferes with sleep; try a warm bath two hours before bedtime and beware of sleep aid medications because they can have side effects.

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Link between not getting enough sleep and ulcerative colitis

A study shows that not getting enough sleep each night can increase a person's risk of developing ulcerative colitis.

If you are not getting the recommended seven-to-eight hours of sleep each night, you may be at increased risk of developing ulcerative colitis, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

"Both short and long durations of sleep have important health implications and are associated with increased overall mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer," said lead study author Ashwin N. Ananthakrishnan, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital. "Our findings indicate that ulcerative colitis may potentially be added to this list. We found that less than six hours of sleep per day and more than nine hours of sleep per day are each associated with an increased risk of ulcerative colitis."

Researchers conducted a prospective study of women who were enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) I since 1976 and NHS II since 1989 and followed through detailed biennial questionnaires with greater than 90 percent follow-up. The large size of the cohorts, prospective design and prolonged duration of follow-up provide a unique opportunity to examine the association between sleep duration and incident disease with sufficient power to adjust for potential confounders.

The results demonstrated that there is a "U-shaped" relationship between sleep duration and risk of ulcerative colitis, with both short and long duration of sleep being associated with an increased risk of disease. These observed associations were independent of other known environmental risk factors.

In a previous study, also published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology last year, Ananthakrishnan and colleagues had reported that poor sleep quality, even while in remission, resulted in a two fold increase in risk of Crohn's disease flares at six months. "All these data together support a growing recognition of the impact of sleep disruption on the immune system, and the need for providers to frequently inquire about sleep duration and quality as an important parameter of health in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases," said Dr. Ananthakrishnan.

The authors acknowledge several study limitations. First, the study population consisted predominantly of white female nurses and is thus not representative of the gender and ethnic distribution in the general population. Sleep duration was also self-reported. However, the size of the study and quality of data substantiate these findings.

Future studies are warranted to better understand mechanisms by which sleep may influence intestinal inflammation.

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Importance of getting enough sleep

This article explains the importance of people getting enough sleep each night.

Studies conducted by the National Sleep Foundation reported that around 70 sleep disorders disturbed 40 million Americans between 1999-2004. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that college students have adapted a disorder of their own, commonly known as the "pull-an-all-nighter" syndrome. This disorder haunts those in hopes of remembering material that is impossible due to lack of sleep.

Did anyone attempt studying until 4 a.m for that 8 a.m biology midterm last week? Think about how much information you actually remembered from cramming and what went out the window once entering the testing center.

Now, think about the correlation between sleep and memory. It is actually impossible for one to properly remember and process information learned without adequate sleep. So how can one maximize sleep time and still be a college student? By finding balance.

“There is a lot of pressure on college kids nowadays,” said Francesca Johnson, junior in psychology. “...it’s hard to keep a balance.”

Well, what happens when balance isn’t found?

“Some short-term physical consequences are a slower metabolism and weakened immune system, on top of your body simply being physically tired,” stressed Carina Hanson, senior in kinesiology and health.

Sleep deprivation causes irritability, affects judgements and can make one feel drunk or hungover by not allowing complete rejuvenation from daily stress. It is also associated with obesity and increased obesity risks. 

Averaging less than 6 hours of sleep a night doesn’t give the body enough time to finish all of the phases of sleep.

Someone who has had a good night’s sleep will pass through the five stages of sleep cycle every 90 - 110 minutes. The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours per night for college students, and each stage is vital to every individual’s overall health.

"The more sleep you get, the more you feel in control of your life and your body,” said Johnson. 

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