The study was based on the information recorded in the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), just under 70% of students surveyed said they got less than eight hours of sleep nightly. The study researchers believe that the lack of sleep was associated with an increased risk of a number of unhealthy behaviors including drug and alcohol use, physical inactivity, and suicidal thoughts. This was revealed in the report released in the authors wrote in Preventive Medicine.
Of students who responded, 68.9% get less than the recommended eight hours of sleep a night.
Compared with students who slept eight or more hours a night, those who were sleep deprived were at higher odds for:
- Current use of cigarettes (age-adjusted odds ratio 1.67, 95% confidence interval 1.45 to 1.93)
- Current use of marijuana (AOR 1.52, 95% CI 1.31 to 1.76)
- Current use of alcohol (AOR 1.64, 95% CI 1.46 to 1.84)
- Current sexual activity (AOR 1.41, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.59)
- Serious suicidal ideation (AOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.60 to 2.16)
- Sad or hopeless feelings (AOR 1.62, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.84)
- Getting in one or more physical fights in a year (AOR 1.40, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.60)
- Less than one hour of physical activity daily for five or more days a week (AOR 1.16, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.29)
- Use of computer for non-school activities for three or more hours a day (AOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.38 to 1.80)
- Drinking soft drinks one or more times a day (AOR 1.14, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.28)
McKnight-Eily and colleagues attributed the higher likelihood of risky behaviors in the sleep-deprived adolescents to a lowered ability to comprehend consequences of their actions or higher susceptibility to peer pressures.
The authors also noted that the combination of lack of sleep and substance use can be detrimental to concentration, alertness, vigilance, and coordination, which may lend itself to further risky behavior. Parental control, or lack thereof, and psychiatric problems are also associated with heightened risk, the researchers wrote.
The 2007 survey had an 81% school response rate, 84% student response rate, and a 68% overall response rate. Of the total responding student population, 13% failed to submit a response to the hours-of-sleep-nightly question.
The authors noted that the study was limited by the cross-sectional design and that the results represented students who attend private or public school only
source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743511002878
