“Previous research has indicated that sleep-wake habits of teenagers vary from those of adults and younger children, and that many adolescents experience chronic partial sleep deprivation,” says study author Kathryn Reid, PhD, of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. “We found that teenagers sleep, on average, 8.5 hours during the week and more than 9.5 hours on weekends.”
Reid and colleagues studied 729 young people ages 12 to 17 who were admitted to the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. They found that, while onset of sleep/waking times were later among older teens, a longer duration was consistent among all subjects compared to previous data. Nearly half of the study subjects reported significant daytime sleepiness.
Other research has suggested that in this age group, sleep deprivation may play a role in lower grades and with behavioral problems. Changing school start times to later has been shown to improve attendance in this age group. The later wake times of the older teenagers in the current study further suggests that there may be benefits to starting school later. However, this is a complex issue that needs to be studied further, Reid said.
It is likely that further analysis of sleep data from this study may reveal relationships between sleep times and other measures of mental health, academic performance and behavior, Reid said.
The study was sponsored by the National Institute on Mental Health.
The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 18,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research.
For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit its web site at www.aan.com.
EDITORS NOTE: Phyllis Zee, Ph.D, will present the research on behalf of lead author, Kathryn Reid, Ph.D. at the American Academy of Neurology's 54th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colo., during a poster presentation on Thursday, April 18, 2002, at 3:00 p.m. in Exhibit Hall C of the Colorado Convention Center. She will be available for media questions at a briefing on Thursday, April 18th from 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. in the AAN Media Room, Lobby C, Room C208 of the Colorado Convention Center.
For more information contact:
Kathy Stone, 651-695-2763, kstone@aan.com
April 13-20, 303-228-8450
Cheryl Alementi, 651-695-2737, calementi@aan.com