Less Than 8 Hours Of Sleep Linked To Suicidal Behavior In Teens

Sleep experts say that adolescents need between eight to 10 hours of sleep for optimal health. Now, a new study has provided more evidence of the importance of night time rest among teenagers.

In the new study, Matthew Weaver, from the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues looked at eight years worth of data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

The survey is administered biannually by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at private and public schools across the country.

The data revealed that more than 70 percent of high school students in the United States get less than the recommended eight hours of sleep.

The researchers also observed a strong association between sleep duration and risk-taking behaviors. Weaver and colleagues found that the odds of unsafe behavior in high school students raised significantly with fewer hours of sleep. These behaviors include drunk driving, unsafe sexual activity, and use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

Teens who slept less than six hours at night were likewise three times more likely to consider suicide, plan a suicide, or attempt suicide, compared with their peers who get at least eight hours or more sleep. They were also four times more likely to have reported a suicide attempt that required them to undergo treatment.

Weaver explained that personal risk-taking behaviors are common precursors to accidents and suicides, which happen to be the leading causes of death among teens.

“Insufficient sleep negatively affects learning and development and acutely alters judgment, particularly among youths,” the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in JAMA Pediatrics on Oct. 1. “We estimated associations between sleep duration and personal safety risk-taking behaviors in US high school students.”

Experts urged parents to stay on top of their kids’ sleep behaviors since teenagers are not always able to manage their own sleep. They may not also always know when it is time to turn off the lights.

“I think my message to parents is that it is a priority. It will make a huge difference in their children’s lives and performance and mood and behavior,” Reut Gruber, the director of the Attention, Behavior and Sleep Laboratory at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, told CNN.

“My experience, my impression, is that it’s something that we still need to prioritize as parents just like what we do with other things we know are unhealthy for kids.”

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