The steady creep of less sleep
sleep with each passing year. The disturbing
trend comes from data collected over the past 20
years from U.S. students.
As of 2012, more than half of the surveyed kids
age 15 or older reported sleeping less than seven
hours a night. That is two to three hours less
sleep than doctors and others recommend. Sleep
is essential, especially for young kids and teens.
Too little sleep leads to poor health and poor
performance in school. It also increases the risk
of accidents.
The new study found consistent decreases in
sleep between 1991 and 2012. The largest drops
happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Details appeared online February 16 in the journal
Pediatrics.
The study crunched data that were collected as
part of a program called “Monitoring the Future.”
Each year, this survey asks some 50,000 U.S.
students a variety of questions about their
behaviors. One of them: “How often do you get at
least seven hours of sleep?” Another asks: “How
often do you get less sleep than you should?”
“Overall, across 20 years and all age groups, 12
to 19, there has been a downward shift in the
proportion of adolescents getting seven or more
hours of sleep,” says Katherine Keyes. A co-
author of the study, she works at Columbia
University in New York City. As an epidemiologist,
she studies the factors that can influence the
health of certain populations, including teens.
Girls were less likely than boys to report getting
at least seven hours of sleep, the researchers
found. Students who lived in urban areas,
belonged to minority groups or whose families
were poor also were less likely to report getting
at least that much sleep.
The biggest decrease in sleep was among 15-
year-olds. Fewer than half of those surveyed in
2012 reported sleeping seven or more hours a
night. That represents nearly a 20 percent
decrease in nightly sleep for that age group since
1991.
Teens don't recognize the problem
Also worrisome was the poor understanding by
many teens of what is ”enough” sleep. Students
from both minority groups and low-income
families were less likely to get seven or more
hours of sleep per night. These same students
also were likely to report that they felt they were
regularly getting enough sleep, the study found.
“A lot of teen-agers just don’t know what an
adequate amount of sleep is. They get four hours
and think they are just fine,” says Keyes. She
adds that one message of the study is that kids
need to learn the importance of getting a proper
night's rest.
The researchers are unsure why kids are sleeping
less. Many people have blamed the rise of social
media and increases in screen time . However, the
steepest drops in sleep occurred in the years
before Facebook and other social media sites
became hugely popular.
More likely, a combination of reasons is to blame,
says Daniel Glaze. He is medical director of The
Children’s Sleep Center at Texas Children’s
Hospital in Houston. He singles out demands put
on teens by early school start times , sports, jobs
—and yes, socializing. Obesity also may play
some role. Obesity disrupts sleep — and teen
obesity rates have risen as the length of a night's
sleep has declined.
“Clearly there are many factors we could improve
and, hopefully, improve the amount of sleep,”
says Glaze, who was not connected with the
study.
But just educating teens to sleep more may not
be enough to change their sleep behavior, report
the authors of a second study. Educating local
teens about the importance of sleep raised their
awareness, researchers at The Chinese University
of Hong Kong found. The bad news: It had no
effect on how much the students actually slept.
These data for Chinese youth also appeared
online February 16 in Pediatrics.
Studies like these suggest that getting teens to
sleep more will require tackling the root causes,
Glaze says. The first study suggests places to
look, he notes. For example, girls report getting
less sleep than boys. He says it's now important
to ask: “What are those teen-age girls doing?
Look at the factors related to specific groups.”
Then, he says, it's important to “not only educate,
but address those factors.”
Keyes and her fellow researchers also found
individual teens get less sleep as they grow up.
The finding is significant. As of 2012, about two-
thirds of 12-year-olds reported sleeping seven or
more hours a night. That same year, only about
one-third of 18-year-olds reported getting that
much shuteye.
Comments
Post a Comment