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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Most US teens are sleep deprived

A recent study shows that most of the teens in the US are sleep deprived.

More than 90 percent of American high school students are chronically sleep-deprived, putting their health and academic performance in jeopardy, a new report finds.

The study, based on U.S. national data, finds that most teens don't get the minimum 9 to 10 hours of sleep per night that's recommended by standard guidelines.

Teenagers do face a number of challenges as they try to get adequate sleep, experts say.

"I don't believe there's one culprit," said the study's lead author, Charles Basch, a professor of health and education at the Teacher's College at Columbia University in New York City.

"For some children it's too much homework, for some it's health problems like asthma," he explained. "For others it may be anxiety or depression, or the prescription medications they are taking for such conditions. Recreational drugs can be a factor, as can having electronics in the bedroom."

Whatever the reason, government surveys show that poor sleep is an ongoing issue for most teenagers.

"This type of data has only been collected since 2007, so we can't say whether the situation has been getting worse historically," Basch said. "But what we can clearly say is that a very substantial portion of high school students throughout America is not getting enough sleep."

His team noted that teens, especially, need adequate sleep because it's crucial to memory, attention, emotional well-being and overall physical health.

In the study, the researchers tracked findings from four U.S. government surveys conducted in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.

Each year, between roughly 12,000 to 15,000 students in grades 9 through 12 were asked about how many average hours of sleep they got each school night.

Overall, less than 10 percent of teens said they were actually meeting current U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for sleep. Only about 7 percent of girls, and around 8 to 9 percent of boys said they got nine to 10 hours of sleep per night.

And, for the most part, sleep patterns for teenagers appeared to get worse with age -- surveys showed that by the time they reached 12th grade, a whopping 95 percent of high school seniors were not routinely meeting CDC sleep guidelines.

Girls tended to fare worse than boys, with girls being more prone to sleep five hours or fewer per night and less likely to get nine or more hours of sleep each night, the study found.

Race also appeared to figure into the equation: black teenagers were significantly more likely to get five or fewer hours of sleep per night than their white peers.

In each survey, 20 percent of black boys and girls were found to have daily sleep routines that included five or fewer hours of sleep. The same was true of 15 percent of Hispanic girls and about 12 percent of Hispanic boys.

According to Basch, early school start times are one major reason behind all those sleepless teens.

"More and more attention is being focused on the start times of schools, with the idea being that very early class schedules do not serve good sleep patterns," he said.

"That is certainly one of the problems," agreed Kelly Baron, an assistant professor of neurology and director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program in the department of neurology with the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

She called the data from the new report "alarming."

"While we're still trying to understand why this is happening, one of the reasons is clearly school start times," Baron said. "Having children wake up to start school at 6 or 7 a.m. is really at odds with their biology."

She explained that a person's sleep patterns "naturally change across our lifespan. And one of the most profound changes is that our natural 24-hour rhythm shifts as we enter puberty. Sure -- some of it's social, [and] kids just want to say up late and such. But the need to stay up later and sleep in later is also biological. So early school times set them up for a chronic sleep disadvantage."

So, can parents do anything to encourage more shut-eye for their kids?

"They can and should get involved," Baron said, "setting curfews, establishing sleep schedules, and limiting screen time in the bedroom. A healthy sleep environment at home is key."

The new study is published in the December issue of the CDC journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

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Teens who sleep less gain more weight in 20s

A study shows that less sleep during the teen years means a person gains more weight by age 21.

Lack of sleep not only puts teens at risk for poor grades, it also puts them at increased risk for obesity, researchers warn.

The study authors analyzed data collected from more than 10,000 Americans when they were aged 16 and 21. Nearly one-fifth of them got less than six hours of sleep a night when they were age 16, and this group was 20 percent more likely to be obese at age 21 than those who got more than eight hours of sleep per night at age 16, the investigators found.

Although lack of exercise and too much time spent watching television were also risk factors for obesity, these behaviors did not account for the link between lack of sleep and obesity, according to the study published online recently in the Journal of Pediatrics.

"Lack of sleep in your teenage years can stack the deck against you for obesity later in life. Once you're an obese adult, it is much harder to lose weight and keep it off. And the longer you are obese, the greater your risk for health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer," study author Shakira Suglia, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City, said in a university news release.

"The message for parents is to make sure their teenagers get more than eight hours a night. A good night's sleep does more than help them stay alert in school. It helps them grow into healthy adults," Suglia added.

Teens should get nine to 10 hours of sleep a night, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's known that daytime sleepiness and fatigue affect what and how people eat by triggering cravings and altering appetite. For example, sleep-deprived people find it easier to buy calorie-laden fast food rather than preparing a healthy meal.

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Teenagers need more sleep

This article explains that teenagers need more sleep, and not getting enough sleep can lead to health consequences.

Health experts say if you don't snooze, you lose. They say teenagers actually do need their beauty sleep.

'Let them sleep!' said the nations largest pediatrician group, the American Academy of Pediatrics. Studies have shown that only one in five teens get nine hours of sleep on school nights, the recommended amount.

The AAP is urging schools to start high school and middle school classes at 8:30 a.m. or later. Lack of sleep in adolescents is shown to increase risk for obesity, stroke and Type 2 diabetes. There is even an increase in anxiety and depression, which can lead to risk-taking behaviors.

The AAP said naps and caffeine only temporarily counteract the lack of sleep, but it's not enough.

"Kids who, for example, take a biology class at 7:20 in the morning, if you compare that group of kids to kids that take that class at 10, 11 or 1 and then you give them all the same standardized tests, as a group the kids that take that class later in the day perform better," said Chief of Division of Pediatric Sleep Medicine Heidi Connolly.

With much controversy surrounding later start times at schools, there may be a long road ahead for teen sleep.

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Pediatricians urge later school start time

This article explains why pediatricians are urging for later school start times for older kids in middle and high schools.

U.S. high schools and middle schools should start classes later in the morning to allow kids some much-needed sleep, a leading group of pediatricians is urging.

Ideally, the American Academy of Pediatrics says, the first bell should ring at 8:30 a.m. or later -- which is the case at only 15 percent of U.S. high schools right now.

At the very least, classes should start no earlier than 8 a.m., said Dr. Judith Owens, the lead author of a new academy policy statement on school start times.

The recommendations, published in the academy's journal Pediatrics, are based on research showing that U.S. kids are sleep-deprived, which has consequences for their health, school performance and safety.

"This is an important issue," said Dr. Marcel Deray, a Florida sleep specialist who wasn't involved in the recommendations.

"I see a lot of teenagers who are tired and have problems in school because they have to get up so early," said Deray, who directs the Sleep Disorders Center at Miami Children's Hospital. "Some kids are getting up at 5 a.m., 6 a.m."

Many people think the answer is for kids to just get to bed earlier, Owens noted. But it's not that easy, she said, because biology has other plans.

Around puberty, the body's natural sleep-wake cycle shifts, and it's actually hard for teenagers to fall asleep earlier than 11 p.m.

"Teenagers' bodies release melatonin later than (adults') do," Deray explained, referring to a hormone the brain secretes in the evening to induce drowsiness.

"The other issue," Owens said, "is that teenagers' sleep needs are greater than many people think. They need nine to nine-and-a-half hours."

Yet, 43 percent of U.S. public high schools start classes before 8 a.m., according to the U.S. Department of Education. Middle schools, meanwhile, typically start classes at 8 a.m. -- with about 20 percent starting earlier than that.

"And that's the first bell," Owens said. "That's not even counting the commute time."

So in areas where kids take the school bus, the actual school day could begin before sunrise.

According to Owens, U.S. high schools started bumping up start times back in the 1950s and '60s, mainly to space out bus runs. Many school districts start high schools and middle schools first, then circle buses back to pick up elementary school kids.

One option would be to flip elementary and high school start times, but parents often oppose that -- since young children could be standing at bus stops in the early-morning dark, or have no one at home after school. Another option -- running more buses -- would be expensive.

Transportation is not the only obstacle, according to the National Sleep Foundation, which supports pushing back school start times. Some other arguments are that sports and extracurricular activities would end too late; teenagers would have no time for after-school jobs; and a later start could conflict with working parents' schedules.

Owens acknowledged the logistical challenges, and said parents and school staff sometimes oppose later start times. As an example, she said the Fairfax County, Va., school district has been debating the issue for years. Four options, including one with a 9:15 a.m. high school start, will be put to a vote this fall.

Some districts have found "creative solutions" to certain obstacles -- like having high school students switch from school buses to public ones, according to the academy.

Deray thinks tackling the practical challenges is worthwhile. He said studies have linked kids' sleep deprivation not only to poorer school performance, but also to higher rates of car accidents, obesity and depression.

In a recent study of eight U.S. high schools that delayed their start times, researchers found improvements in kids' grades, attendance and car crash rates.

Later school starts are just one way to help sleepy kids, however. Deray offered parents some tips.

"All electronic devices should be turned off an hour or two before bed," he said. "The blue light from them suppresses melatonin production."

He also advised avoiding physical and mental stimulation close to bedtime -- which means exercise and homework should be done earlier in the evening. And while teenagers love to sleep till noon on weekends, that will only further disturb their sleep/wake cycle. Deray said kids should get up by 9 a.m. on weekends and get plenty of morning sunlight.

He acknowledged, though, that all of that is easier said than done.

Owens agreed. "One of the issues is that kids are overscheduled," she said. "Don't give them so many things to do that they can't get to bed before midnight."

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Not getting enough sleep adds to health problems in teens

A study shows that teenagers increase their risk of developing health issues due to  getting too little sleep (6 hours or less). Electronics in the bedroom are blamed for getting too little sleep.

Many teens from lower- and middle-income homes get too little sleep, potentially adding to the problems of kids already at risk for health issues, new research finds.

The study of 250 high school students found they slept an average of six hours a night, far less than the recommended amount -- about nine hours.

Kids who skimp on sleep are more likely to report feeling hopeless, as well as smoke, drink alcohol and use marijuana, according to background information in the report, published online April 21 in Pediatrics.

"Many teenagers, especially blacks, do not get enough sleep, which may contribute to their risk for poor health," said lead researcher Karen Matthews, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

"Inadequate sleep can result in academic underachievement, health-damaging behaviors and negative mood," she said.

Matthews said sleep deprivation isn't confined to the poor. "Many kids who come from upper class families also do not get enough sleep, but our study focused on poorer children because of a lack of data available in those [upper class] students," she said.

The researchers wondered if the challenges of living in disadvantaged circumstances would affect sleep patterns. In their sample, 60 percent of the kids lived in single-family homes. Overall, the kids were heavier than national average, the researchers said.

Matthews isn't sure why these teens aren't sleeping enough. "However, factors that determine bedtime play a key role for sleep duration because of mandatory school start times," she said.

"Bedtimes can be quite late if students are using electronic devices late into the evening, and bright light exposure [from these devices] can keep them up," she said.

Late-night studying was not a factor in this sample, Matthews said.

Dr. Metee Comkornruecha, an adolescent medicine specialist at Miami Children's Hospital, said the study shows "what a lot of us are thinking -- that adolescents aren't getting enough sleep."

Kids are prone to a lot of distractions, he said. "Cell phones are used not only for texting but to look on the Internet and for various types of social media. That frequent stimulation can keep these kids up."

Comkornruecha recommended removing electronic distractions from the bedroom. "Take the phones, computer and TVs away from the bedroom. If they're there, kids are going to use them. But if the bedroom is a safe haven for sleeping, then that's what it is going to be used for," he said.

Among the students whose sleep patterns were monitored, 57 percent were black and 54 percent were girls. All came from low- to middle-class families.

Matthews said besides looking at kids from poorer families, they wanted to look at any differences by race because two studies of middle-aged adults suggested that blacks had worse sleep than whites. "Thus, we conducted our study at an integrated high school that had black and white students of similar economic backgrounds," Matthews added.

The researchers had the students complete questionnaires and keep a diary of the length and quality of their sleep. At night, the teens were hooked up to an electronic device that monitored their sleep.

On school nights, the teens slept about six hours, and on the weekend, about seven hours. Matthews' team found that blacks and males slept less than other kids, and their sleep was more fragmented. Girls reported poorer quality of sleep and said they were often tired during the day.

The researchers previously reported that insufficient sleep is linked to higher blood pressure and insulin resistance, a risk factor for diabetes.

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Study: Later school start times are beneficial for adolescents

A study shows that later school start times result in improved sleep quality and a better overall mood in adolescents.

Julie Boergers, Ph.D., a psychologist and sleep expert from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center, recently led a study linking later school start times to improved sleep and mood in teens. The article, titled "Later School Start Time is Associated with Improved Sleep and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents," appears in the current issue of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.

"Sleep deprivation is epidemic amongadolescents, with potentially serious impacts on mental and physical health, safety and learning. Early high school start times contribute to this problem," said Boergers. "Most teenagers undergo a biological shift to a later sleep-wake cycle, which can make early school start times particularly challenging. In this study, we looked at whether a relatively modest, temporary delay in school start time would change students' sleep patterns, sleepiness, mood and caffeine use."

Boergers' team administered the School Sleep Habits Survey to boarding students attending an independent high school both before and after their school start time was experimentally delayed from 8 to 8:25 a.m. during the winter term.

The delay in school start time was associated with a significant (29 minute) increase in sleep duration on school nights, with the percentage of students receiving eight or more hours of sleep on a school night jumping from 18 to 44 percent. The research found that younger students and those sleeping less at the start of the study were most likely to benefit from the schedule change. And once the earlier start time was reinstituted during the spring term, teens reverted back to their original sleep levels.

Daytime sleepiness, depressed mood and caffeine use were all significantly reduced after the delay in school start time. The later school start time had no effect on the number of hours students spent doing homework, playing sports or engaging in extracurricular activities.

Boergers, who is also co-director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic at Hasbro Children's Hospital, said that these findings have important implications for public policy. "The results of this study add to a growing body of research demonstrating important health benefits of later school start times for adolescents," she said. "If we more closely align school schedules with adolescents' circadian rhythms and sleepneeds, we will have students who are more alert, happier, better prepared to learn, and aren't dependent on caffeine and energy drinks just to stay awake in class."

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Sleep loss can raise teenager's blood pressure

Sleep loss in teenagers has many negative health outcomes, such as daytime sleepiness and raising their blood pressure, which can lead to serious health conditions later in life.

Beyond making teens sleepy during the day, staying up late may be raising their blood pressure, setting them up for later heart troubles, say Chinese researchers.

"Sleep is an essential part of everyone's life. However, with continuous advancement of technology, the portion of sleep in each day is diminishing," the study's lead author Chun-Ting Au told Reuters Health in an email.

Au is a research associate in the Department of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

He and his team wanted to examine the relationship between sleep and blood pressure in teens without other potential causes of high blood pressure, such as obesity or sleep apnea.

"Scientifically, as the association between sleep duration and blood pressure was still uncertain, we decided to conduct this study to examine the association in a more precise way," Au said.

The researchers invited adolescents who had participated in a previous study on obstructive sleep apnea. All participants in the new study were healthy and not overweight or obese for their ages, and none had sleep apnea or recent surgery involving the airways.

A total of 143 kids between the ages of 10 and 18 completed the study. The kids filled out sleep diaries for seven days before they entered a sleep lab for 24-hour sleep studies, where they were monitored for blood pressure, sleep duration and the quality of their sleep.

In general, the children who had less total sleep during the week had slightly higher blood pressure measurements. On average, each hour of nightly lost sleep was associated with an increase of 2 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and 1 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure.

The study did not prove that short sleep duration would cause high blood pressure in adolescents. Some other cause could be behind both the higher blood pressure readings and reduced sleep times.

The researchers point out that previous studies have found that kids with short sleep times had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the morning, and that sleep deprivation may blunt the ability of blood vessels to respond to changes in pressure.

In the current study, researchers also found that kids who got the least amount of sleep based on their sleep diaries generally had later bedtimes and woke up earlier every day. But during the 24-hour sleep study, those kids fell asleep sooner and had longer total sleep times than the rest of the kids.

This change in sleep patterns might signal a rebound from sleep deprivation in the preceding week and suggests that kids might be able to make up for some lost sleep, Au's team writes in the journal Pediatrics.

"Our results found that blood pressure was sensitive to changes in sleep pattern, implicating that having longer sleep may have beneficial effects on blood pressure and thus cardiovascular health," Au said.

"On the other hand, although blood pressure was more closely associated with the sleep time on the night before, the carryover effect of the ‘sleep debt' accumulated over the past few days remained significant," he said.

"This suggests that occasional adequate sleep, as what we commonly do during weekends, may improve the situation a little bit, but does not completely reverse the detrimental effects of long-term sleep deprivation on blood pressure," Au said.

Dr. Judith Owens, director of Sleep Medicine at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, said there's not much published research in this area.

"As the authors point out, a lot of what's been done previously was confounded by this issue of obesity and obstructive sleep apnea. I think this was a very important and innovative step to eliminate those confounding variables, and look at this issue in otherwise healthy adolescents," she told Reuters Health.

Owens, a professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, was not involved in the new study.

She said this is an issue that affects all teenagers, not just kids who have sleep problems.

"This is something that goes on for at least 9 months of the year, for years, for the average adolescent, so the implication that this may have measurable cardiovascular effects is so important," Owens said.

Owens also said she hopes reports like this lead to long-term studies following sleep-deprived teens into their adult years.

"If we can see these short term kinds of effects, maybe we'll see more funding to do these very expensive studies where we're measuring these same kinds of issues in adults who were adolescents undergoing this sleep deprivation," she said.

Owens also told Reuters Health that disruptions in circadian rhythms might also contribute to cardiovascular risk.

Adolescents are often sleep deprived during the school year because their circadian rhythms don't match up with school schedules and they often can't fall asleep early enough to meet their sleep needs.

Au says parents can help their kids get the sleep they need.

"Be consistent and perseverant," he wrote in an email. "There are several techniques (e.g. developing a nightly bedtime routine) that can help children establish a regular sleep pattern. You may easily obtain a list of them from the Internet. No matter what technique you use, consistency and perseverance is the key to success."

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Study: Teenagers who go to sleep late have lower grades

A study shows that teenagers with late bedtimes have lower grades than those who go to sleep earlier.

Teens with late bedtimes during the school year and schooldays that start early have lower academic performance and are at risk for later emotional distress. A new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health provides further evidence for a growing body of research that supports a movement to delay school start times for adolescents.

"Going to bed after 11:30 pm, particularly in younger adolescents, predicted worse cumulative grade point average (GPA) at high school graduation and more emotional distress in the college years and beyond," said the study's lead author Lauren D. Asarnow, MA, a doctoral student in the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

The study gathered data on sleep and the number of hours slept from 2,700 teens age 13 to 18 participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in two cohorts, one in 1995, the second in 1996. In 2001-2002, as respondents aged, data on academic performance and self-reported emotional health were collected for longitudinal comparison. The overall goal of the study was to examine the relationship between the sleep/circadian patterns of high school adolescents in a nationally representative sample, their overall academic performance in high school and rates of emotional distress reported post graduation.

For both high school cohorts, 23 percent of participants reported going to bed at 11:15 pm or later. By the time these teens reached graduation and college age, late school year bedtimes in high school predicted both lower cumulative GPA at graduation and more emotional distress between age 18 and 26. The researchers noted previous research found that adolescents who prefer late activities and bedtimes (a pattern of behavior often referred to as an evening circadian preference) were tested in the morning; they performed worse on cognitive tasks.

Asarnow urged parents to help youngsters get to bed earlier and added that a teen's sleep behavior is highly modifiable with proper support. However, shifting a teen's bedtime from a late to an earlier hour can be hard, she added, in part because for 30 percent to 40 percent of teens, delayed bedtimes have a biological basis tied to the onset and progress of puberty. Furthermore, academic pressure, habits around technology use and the bedtimes of friends also influence a teen's choice to turn in or stay up late.

Timothy Monk, Ph.D., director of the Human Chronobiology Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh agreed that the need to rise very early for school can put students at risk for underperformance academically and for other problems tied to a lack of sleep. "An early school start time both limits the sleeping time of the student and asks him or her to learn at what is close to the nadir of their circadian cycle."

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Sleep deprivation epidemic in teenagers, study claims

A study claims that there is currently an epidemic of sleep deprivation among teenagers and discusses how this is harmful to their health.

Caffeine, late nights and lack of sleep are just a few ways to describe the life of a typical teenager. Fortunately, a recent teen sleep study conducted at the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic at UC Berkeley aims to help address this problem. Allison Harvey, a psychology professor and the main investigator of the study recognizes the growth in the number of sleep-deprived adolescents and the need to do something about it.

This study has been going on for four years. Participants in the study must be between the ages of 10 and 18 and experience at least one problem relating to emotional health, social aptitude, behavioral irregularity or academic achievement. They also must report having problems sleeping at night. If all criteria are met, they are then invited to a sleepover at the UC Berkeley sleep lab for observation.

Researchers of the study used many methods for improving sleep among the teenage participants. For instance, common methods included motivation interventions and chronothereapy — a type of therapy that involves controlling sleep cycle times as well as the amount of light present — in order to adjust the participants’ circadian rhythm, the internal clock that regulates our biological functions every 24 hours.

The aim of the study was to try to shift the bedtimes of the teenagers. To do so, researchers manipulated melatonin — a hormone which aids in sleep and wake cycles. Once the participants arrived at the campus for the sleepover, they were expected to complete a six-week intervention. The intervention included sessions with a sleeping coach, interviews, saliva samples as well as monitoring activity levels through a special watch known as the Actiwatch.

The study wouldn’t have been possible without the undergraduate student research assistants, whose help includes everything from helping with recording, monitoring Actiwatch, being a morning or night buddy for the participants and having an active role in the biomeasures and outreach group.

Grace Wang, an undergraduate student majoring in psychology, molecular biology and nutritional science, has been an active member of the research assistant team for the study.

“More and more people realize how important sleep is and how important it is to set a regular sleep cycle. Perhaps it would be harder for the teenaged generation to understand, acknowledge and actually implement this into their schedules as they have a lot of things on their plates: clubs, activities, homework, etc.,” Wang said, who is no stranger to unhealthy sleeping cycles herself, in an email interview.

However, sleep-deprived teenagers are not only exclusive to the UC Berkeley campus. Ariel Sim, a third-year UC Davis statistics major and economics minor, has the tendency to calculate the number of hours of sleep she will be getting, though sadly it’s not nearly enough. Just like many students found over all sorts of campuses, Ariel is involved in not only her academics, but other activities as well.

“I am a student leader at a Christian fellowship on campus. I also have to work as much as I can without sacrificing schoolwork to cover rent, tuition, bills, insurance, groceries and any other living expenses. While I have a lot of responsibilities that take up my time, I also suffer from mild insomnia. Perhaps, that’s why I don’t get an ‘ideal’ amount of sleep or ever feel fully rested,” Sim said in an email interview.

Dr. Irwin Feinberg and Dr. Ian Campbell, both from the UC Davis Sleep Research Lab and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences are also interested in studying sleep deprivation among teenagers. Both are involved in a sleep need study in adolescents and how the need changes from the ages of 10 to 18 years old.

“There is a decreased need of sleep across adolescence from 12 to 16.5 years, and right now the recommended hours of sleep for teenagers is nine to 10 hours a night,” Dr. Campbell said.

Feinberg and Campbell’s findings lead the researchers to believe that adolescents need less recuperation during the night if they achieve it through naps during the day. Because these findings are not yet conclusive, they are working on teasing out the details.

So if you have brothers or siblings at that age or care for kids yourself, and if they are falling asleep during the day, then most likely they are sleep-deprived. According to both Dr. Feinberg and Dr. Campbell, it is equally important that teenagers develop a regular sleeping schedule regardless of the weekday or weekend.

As a rule of thumb, it is important to try to ensure that teenagers are well-rested in order to have a healthy lifestyle, but in the process of ensuring their sleep, don’t forget to catch some shut eye yourself.

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More back to school sleeping tips for kids and teens

This article discusses great back to school sleeping tips for children and teenagers to help the transition from summer to healthier sleep habits for school.

Sleep experts generally advise that a consistent bed time is very important to maintain good sleep habits. But summertime can mean that consistency doesn’t happen as kids may stay awake later at night. A recent study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health suggests consistency of kids’ bedtimes is just as important for their developing brains as the number of hours of sleep they get. The results showed that at age 7, not having a regular bedtime was related to lower cognitive tests scores in girls for reading, math and spatial skills, but not for boys.

As the new school year approaches, Mohsin Maqbool, M.D., Director of the Pediatric Neurology Sleep Center and Laboratory on staff at the DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan offers the following tips to help kids and teens develop good sleep habits.

• Go to bed in a timely manner to assure sufficient sleep duration. That is the key to getting up on time in the morning, refreshed.
• Keep consistent bedtimes and wake times every day of the week. Late weekend nights or sleeping-in can throw off a sleep schedule for days.
• The national sleep foundation suggests that 5- to 12-year-olds need 10 to 11 hours of sleep every day.
• A child’s bedroom should be cool, quiet and comfortable. Children who stare at clocks should have their clocks turned away from them. Bedtime should follow a predictable sequence of events, such as brushing teeth and reading a story.
• Avoid spending lots of non-sleep time in bed — spending hours lying on a bed doing other activities before bedtime keeps our brains from associating the bed with sleep time.
• Adolescents can benefit from a daytime nap. A short nap (20 to 30 minutes) in the afternoon has shown to improve physical efficiency and cognitive performance. The key here is that the nap should not be longer than 45 minutes or else grogginess kicks in.
• Avoid high stimulation activities just before bed, such as watching television, playing video games, communication with friends, or exercise. It is especially important to avoid these activities during a nighttime awakening. It is best not to have video games, televisions, computers or phones in the child’s bedroom.
• Avoid caffeine (sodas, chocolate, tea, coffee) in the afternoons/evenings. Even if caffeine doesn’t prevent falling asleep it can still lead to shallow sleep or frequent awakenings. Caffeine should be avoided within 4 to 6 hours of bedtime.
• If a child is awake in bed tossing and turning, it is better for them to get out of bed to do a low stimulation activity, (i.e., reading) then return to bed later. This keeps the bed from becoming associated with sleeplessness. If the child is still awake after 20 to 30 minutes, spend another 20 minutes out of bed before lying down again.

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Sleep deprivation results in poor dietary choices in teenagers

Teenagers who get less sleep make poor dietary choices as opposed to teenagers who get enough sleep.

Well-rested teenagers tend to make more healthful food choices than their sleep-deprived peers, according to a study led by Lauren Hale, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. The finding, presented at SLEEP 2013, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, may be key to understanding the link between sleep and obesity.

"Not only do sleepy teens on average eat more food that's bad for them, they also eat less food that is good for them," said Dr. Hale, speaking about the study results. "While we already know that sleep duration is associated with a range of health consequences, this study speaks to some of the mechanisms, i.e., nutrition and decision making, through which health outcomes are affected."

The study, which was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, examined the association between sleep duration and food choices in a national representative sample of 13,284 teenagers in the second wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The data were collected in 1996 when the interview subjects had a mean age of 16 years.

The authors found that those teens who reported sleeping fewer than seven hours per night -- 18 percent of respondents -- were more likely to consume fast food two or more times per week and less likely to eat healthful food such as fruits and vegetables. The results took into account factors such as age, gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical activity and family structure, and found that short sleep duration had an independent effect on both healthy and unhealthy food choices.

The respondents fell into one of three categories: short sleepers, who received fewer than seven hours per night; mid-range sleepers, who had seven to eight hours per night; and recommended sleepers, who received more than eight hours per night. The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that adolescents get between nine and 10 hours of sleep per night.

"We are interested in the association between sleep duration and food choices in teenagers because adolescence is a critical developmental period between childhood and adulthood," said the first author of the study, Allison Kruger, MPH, a community health worker at Stony Brook University Hospital. "Teenagers have a fair amount of control over their food and sleep, and the habits they form in adolescence can strongly impact their habits as adults."

The research team -- which included co-authors Eric N. Reither, PhD, Utah State University; Patrick Krueger, PhD, University of Colorado at Denver; and Paul E. Peppard, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison -- concluded that addressing sleep deficiency may be a novel and effective way to improve obesity prevention and health promotion interventions.

Dr. Hale said that one of the next steps in the research will be to explore whether the association between sleep duration and food choices is causal.

"If we determine that there is a causal link between chronic sleep and poor dietary choices, then we need to start thinking about how to more actively incorporate sleep hygiene education into obesity prevention and health promotion interventions," she said.

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