Nationally, 17 percent of teenagers say they get less than six hours of sleep per night, which FIU researchers say can lead to serious health and behavioral problems.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends adolescents get eight hours of sleep per night, but Criminal Justice professor Ryan C. Meldrum says the real area of concern are those adolescents who achieve less than five hours of sleep on a regular basis.
“Studies typically examine the implications of getting anything less than eight hours of sleep at night. What I wanted to investigate was whether there might be differences in the consequences of sleep deprivation depending on the severity of such deprivations,” Meldrum said. “In other words, I wanted to know if getting six or seven hours of sleep at night really places teens at risk for problematic health and behavior outcomes, or whether the impact of sleep deprivation is confined to teens at the extreme who average less than six hours of sleep at night.”
In a recent study published in Preventive Medicine, Meldrum links extreme sleep deprivation to 12 outcomes ranging from obesity, substance use, drunk driving and even suicidal tendencies. For example, teenagers who say they get an average of five hours of sleep per night are 37 percent more likely to report engaging in fighting than those who get an average of eight or more hours of sleep. That percentage jumps to 137 percent for those who get less than five hours of sleep on average.
Likewise, teens who get five hours of sleep per night are 40 percent more likely to be obese than those who get eight or more hours of sleep, and that percentage jumps to 83 percent for those who get less than five hours of sleep. Yet, for these and many other outcomes analyzed in the study, Meldrum found that getting six or seven hours of sleep at night did not place teens at any greater risk for health and behavioral problems than those who get eight or more hours of sleep at night.
“What this means is that, at least for the outcomes investigated in this study, minor deprivations in sleep do not appear to be all that harmful during adolescence,” Meldrum said. “Rather, it is the much smaller portion of the teenage population that experiences more severe deprivations in sleep that parents, teachers, and practitioners need to be on the lookout for. Efforts to assist these teens in achieving just one more hour of sleep at night could significantly reduce their risk of poor health and bad behavior.”
A member of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Meldrum focuses his research on juvenile delinquency, with particular attention given to peer associations and self-control during adolescence.
Are you sure the 17% figure refers to the percentage of teenagers who said they get under SIX hours of sleep per night – or under FIVE hours, as suggested in the study’s abstract? The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that about 40% of teens said they got under 6 hours or sleep, and 16% or so getting fewer than 5 hours. It’s hard to believe that these numbers changed so much in the 2011 YRBS.
I have the 2011 YRBS data file in front of me, as well as the 2011 YRBS data users guide generated by the CDC. All analyses were run using the data weights, and using the weighted data 17.4% of high school students in 2011 reported getting less than 6 hrs of sleep at night (10.8% report 5 hrs; 6.6% report less than 5 hrs).
Also, page 68 of the 2007 national YRBS data users guide shows that 15.9% of high school students get less than 6 hrs of sleep at night.
Study on sleep deprivation
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