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Sleep-Deprived Teens At-Risk for Obesity

The more studies on teens and sleep that are released, the more we learn about the risks to teens when they are sleep-deprived. The latest study adds the risk of obesity to the already established links of teen sleep-deprivation to depression, high blood pressure, poor grades, poor mental alertness, and automobile accidents. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to reducing risks...more sleep.

Teens who sleep less than eight hours a night are more likely to eat a high-fat diet that puts them at risk for obesity and the many health problems connected with it, new research shows.

The study, published in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Sleep, found that these sleep-deprived teens consumed 2.2 percent more calories from fat, and ate more snacks than those who slept eight hours or more a night. They also ate more total calories.

"There's been a lot of research over the last five years implicating insufficient sleep with obesity," said study author Dr. Susan Redline, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "Some experimental studies on sleep deprivation in controlled laboratory environments show a craving for fatty foods among the participants" who got less sleep, she said.

Redline, a professor of medicine with the school's division of sleep medicine, said sleep-deprived teens may suffer from metabolic disturbances that have been linked to obesity and insulin resistance in other research with shift workers whose sleep was also irregular.

In addition to being a possible cause of metabolic problems, fewer hours of sleep provided teens with "more opportunities to eat," Redline said.

Teens need about nine hours of sleep every night to feel rested and alert the next day, but few teens get that amount, experts said.

Source: Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/642649.html