What is the importance of sleep in adolescent health? Skaidero RSU researcher / Article

Adolescent sleep was identified as a public health problem already in the 19th century. In the literature, insufficient sleep in adolescents is associated with generally worse health indicators and lower overall satisfaction with life, higher risk of trauma, anxiety and depressive disorders, as well as worse school performance. There are also long-term effects that lead to poorer health outcomes in adulthood. Thus, today, insufficient sleep duration confidently occupies a place among important health risk factors.

Teenagers sleep less and less

It must be said that the historically recommended sleep duration has always exceeded the actual one. Naturally, the ever-decreasing sleep duration of children and teenagers is always blamed on the products of the technological development of the respective era, starting with the availability of books and the invention of electricity, continuing with the increasingly frequent appearance of cinema and TV in every family’s home. And accordingly – the emergence of smart devices, the Internet and social networks, which characterize modern challenges in daily planning and time allocation.

Overall, the data show that over the past 100 years, the average sleep duration of children and adolescents has decreased by more than an hour due to increasingly later bedtimes, while rising times have remained relatively unchanged.

Today, according to the guidelines of the US National Sleep Foundation, teenagers need at least seven hours of sleep, which is the minimum acceptable amount of sleep. Optimally, we are talking about eight to ten hours of sleep.

Recent research data on the average sleep duration of teenagers in Europe shows that it varies from less than eight to nine hours during school days. In this study, Latvia stands out with the second shortest average sleep duration of teenagers after Poland – seven hours and 53 minutes during school days. In addition, there are worrying data that almost every fifth teenager in Latvia does not reach the minimum sufficient sleep duration of seven hours during school days, which is one of the highest indicators in the mentioned international comparison.

Adolescent age is particularly relevant in the context of sleep duration, because at this age there are changes in the wake-sleep cycle, with the overall activity period shifting towards the evening. Not only biological and physiological processes play a role here, but also age-specific decline in parental control over bedtime. The importance of peer and mutual communication is also increasing, changes in the habits of using electronic media are taking place, when communication with friends or spending time on social networks often lasts until late in the evening or even at night. Stressors related to the school environment and the learning process should also be mentioned.

What affects sleep duration?

Data of the study of habits affecting the health of students 2017-2018. reveals several important factors associated with a higher risk of insufficient sleep. Among them are aspects related to the lifestyle and habits of teenagers, as well as to the family and social environment. For example, an incomplete family structure, when both biological parents are not in the family, is mentioned as an important risk factor for insufficient sleep duration – especially among older boys. This circumstance may be the reason for insufficient supervision of teenagers and a weaker connection with parents and family. Dissatisfaction with school, high academic stress and spending more than four and a half hours a day in front of screens of electronic devices are equally important factors affecting sleep duration.

This especially affects the youngest teenagers, who may not yet have sufficiently adapted to the school environment and developed the skills to cope with the various challenges of the school environment and the growing academic stress.

Younger teenagers are also more likely to have underdeveloped self-control skills regarding appropriate and meaningful use of electronic devices.

These and other factors – teasing, somatic pain, insufficient physical activity, etc. can contribute to difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep during the night, or waking up too early in the morning. As a result, total sleep duration is reduced, resulting in significant sleep deprivation on weekdays.

Extracurricular activity overload?

Interestingly, not participating in any form of extracurricular activities is also associated with a higher risk of insufficient sleep. This conclusion probably conflicts with the opinion expressed elsewhere in society about children and teenagers overloaded with various extracurricular activities. However, it is important to keep in mind that involvement in organized extracurricular activities is evaluated in research as a health-promoting and development-stimulating practice, as opposed to peer-oriented, unsupervised and unstructured activities, which can contribute to adolescent risky behavior. For example, associations have been observed between higher measures of general well-being, academic performance, including both grades and achievement striving, and lower risks of substance use or antisocial behavior among adolescents who participate in organized extracurricular activities compared to their peers who do not. doesn’t do. It is important to note that with increasing age, both the total number of extracurricular activities that teenagers engage in and the proportion of teenagers involved in any extracurricular activities decrease.

Undeniably, a busy and activity-filled extracurricular schedule is associated with higher stress scores. Meanwhile, with regard to sleep duration, there is evidence that for each additional hour spent in extracurricular activities, overall sleep duration decreased by only four minutes on average. Thus, the potentially negative impact of extracurricular activities should be evaluated with caution, bearing in mind that more important factors affecting sleep duration are early school start time, unsupervised bedtime by parents, which in combination with a high load of extracurricular activities can be the cause of insufficient sleep duration on school days.

Can we help teenagers?

It is important to notice the adolescent’s sleep problems early and help find a solution. There are several indicators that both family members and teachers can notice – of course, sleepiness during the day is one of them, but there are also easier irritability, aggressiveness or, on the contrary, depression, also complaints about somatic pain, feeling bad in general, in some cases also deterioration of academic performance.

Most of the time, a review of sleep hygiene habits will be an effective solution, however, taking into account the variety of factors affecting sleep duration and the complex nature of their interrelationships, sometimes solving adolescent sleep problems may also require a complex and comprehensive approach, as sleep problems can be an indicator of more serious psychological or somatic problems .

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