Abstract
Short, Michelle
PhD candidate, School of Psychology, Flinders University
How teenagers' sleep is putting them at risk
At a time when teenagers are completing their secondary education, managing more mature social relationships and learning to drive, their sleep habits are putting them at heightened risk. This is an important yet under-recognised public health concern. Researchers from Flinders University conducted a comprehensive study of the sleep habits of 384 South Australian adolescents. This study is the largest of its kind in the world, collecting data using teens' own reports as well as sophisticated sleep monitors.
Unfortunately, the report card the teens received was far from good. The quality of teen sleep was shown to be more important than the amount of sleep they were getting. Poor sleep was associated with higher levels of sleepiness, fatigue and depression. The relationship between sleep and school performance was more complicated. Some of the sleepy/fatigued students perform well at school despite their poor sleep, while a second group experienced more depression and performed poorly at school.
In an average class of 30 high school students, 5 suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness. This is the sort of sleepiness that, in commercial drivers, can lead to them losing their licence and, in learner drivers, places them and others at risk on the road. A further 7 teenagers in a class of 30 report having a sleep problem and 21 regularly obtain less than the ideal 9 hours of sleep on school nights. While the number of sleep-related problems is high, only 14% of parents report a sleep problem in their teen.