Too Little Sleep Could Have Teens Piling on Pounds

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

New research suggests that not getting enough sleep may doom adolescents and teens to obesity and poorer health as they enter adulthood.

Those who slept less than eight hours a night were more likely to be overweight or obese than their peers who do get enough sleep, the study found. Those shorter sleepers were also more likely to have a combination of other health concerns, including excess fat around the middle, elevated blood pressure, and abnormal blood fat and sugar levels.

"Our study shows that most teenagers do not get enough sleep, and this is connected with excess weight and characteristics that promote weight gain, potentially setting them up for future problems," said study author Jesús Martínez Gómez. He is a researcher in training at the Cardiovascular Health and Imaging Laboratory at the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid.

The study participants were 1,229 adolescents with an average age of 12 at baseline.

The researchers measured the youths' sleep for seven days using a wearable activity tracker three times over the course of the study, at ages 12, 14 and 16. The investigators then used body mass index to determine overweight and obesity status.

The kids were categorized as very short sleepers if they slept less than seven hours a night, short sleepers if they got seven to eight hours, and optimal if they had eight or more hours of sleep.

The team found that at age 12, only 34% of participants slept at least eight hours a night. This dropped to 23% by age 14 and to 19% by age 16. Boys tended to get less sleep. The teens who got the most sleep also woke less during the night and spent more time in bed.

Overweight and obesity prevalence was 27% at age 12, 24% at age 14, and 21% at age 16, the findings showed.

Compared with optimal sleepers, overweight/obesity was 21% and 72% more likely in very short sleepers at ages 12 and 14 years. Meanwhile, short sleepers were 19% and 29% more likely to be overweight/obese compared with optimal sleepers at ages 12 and 14.

The research will be presented at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Barcelona. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/how-many-hours-of-sleep-do-teens-need-2657874932.html