Adequate sleep among adolescents is positively associated with health status and health-related behaviors

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Abstract

Background

Amount of sleep is an important indicator of health and well-being in children and adolescents. Adequate sleep (AS: adequate sleep is defined as 6–8 hours per night regularly) is a critical factor in adolescent health and health-related behaviors. The present study was based on a health promotion project previously conducted on adolescents in Tao-Yuan County, Taiwan. The aim was to examine the relationship between AS during schooldays and excessive body weight, frequency of visiting doctors and health-related behaviors among Taiwanese adolescents.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design, categorical and multivariate data analyses were used. The hypotheses investigated were: high frequency of AS is positively associated with lack of obesity and less frequent visits to doctors; and high frequency AS is positively associated with health-related behavior.

Results

A total of 656 boys (53.2%) and girls (46.8%), ranging in age from 13–18 years were studied between January and June 2004. Three hundred and fifty seven subjects (54%) reported that they slept less than the suggested 6–8 hours on schooldays. A significant negative association was found between low sleep and of the following health-related behaviors: (1) life appreciation; (2) taking responsibility for health; (3) adopting healthy diet; (4) effective stress management; (5) regular exercise; and (6) total AHP score. High frequency AS was associated with low frequencies of obesity after potential confounding factors were controlled. Junior high school adolescents reported significantly higher frequencies of AS than high school participants. Gender, family structure, home location and frequency of television watching or computer use were not significantly associated with AS.

Conclusion

These findings support the proposition that AS is associated with good health status and high-frequency adoption of health-related behavior. Furthermore, these findings suggest that inadequate sleep may be a screening indicator for an unhealthy lifestyle and poor health status. The results might be useful for future research into the development of intervention strategies to assist adolescents who are not receiving enough hours of sleep.

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Most cited references 22

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Sleep quality versus sleep quantity: relationships between sleep and measures of health, well-being and sleepiness in college students.

June Pilcher, Douglas R. Ginter, Brigitte Sadowsky (1997)

Two studies assessed whether measures of health, well-being, and sleepiness are better related to sleep quality or sleep quantity. In both studies, subjects completed a 7-day sleep log followed by a battery of surveys pertaining to health, well-being, and sleepiness. In subjects sleeping an average of 7 hours a night, average sleep quality was better related to health, affect balance, satisfaction with life, and feelings of tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion than average sleep quantity. In addition, average sleep quality was better related to sleepiness than sleep quantity. These results indicate that health care professionals should focus on sleep quality in addition to sleep quantity in their efforts to understand the role of sleep in daily life.

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Circadian preference, sleep and daytime behaviour in adolescence.

Flavia Giannotti, Flavia Cortesi, Teresa Sebastiani … (2002)

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between circadian preferences, regularity of sleep patterns, sleep problems, daytime sleepiness and daytime behaviour. As a part of an epidemiological survey on sleep in a representative sample of Italian high-school students, a total of 6631 adolescents, aged 14.1-18.6 years, completed the School Sleep Habits Survey, a comprehensive questionnaire including items regarding sleep, sleepiness, substance use, anxiety and depressed mood, use of sleeping pills, school attendance and a morningness/eveningness scale. The sample consisted of 742 evening-types (315 males and 427 females; mean age 17.1 years) and 1005 morning-types (451 males and 554 females; mean age 16.8 years). No significant sex differences were found for morningness/eveningness score. Eveningness was associated with later bedtime and wake-up time, especially on weekends, shorter time in bed during the week, longer weekend time in bed, irregular sleep-wake schedule, subjective poor sleep. Moreover, evening types used to nap more frequently during school days, complained of daytime sleepiness, referred more attention problems, poor school achievement, more injuries and were more emotionally upset than the other chronotype. They referred also greater caffeine-containing beverages and substances to promote sleep consumption. Our results suggest that circadian preference might be related not only to sleep pattern, but also to other adolescent behaviours.

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Television viewing, computer game playing, and Internet use and self-reported time to bed and time out of bed in secondary-school children.

Jan Van den Bulck (2004)

To investigate the relationship between the presence of a television set, a gaming computer, and/or an Internet connection in the room of adolescents and television viewing, computer game playing, and Internet use on the one hand, and time to bed, time up, time spent in bed, and overall tiredness in first- and fourth-year secondary-school children on the other hand. A random sample of students from 15 schools in Flanders, Belgium, yielded 2546 children who completed a questionnaire with questions about media presence in bedrooms; volume of television viewing, computer game playing, and Internet use; time to bed and time up on average weekdays and average weekend days; and questions regarding the level of tiredness in the morning, at school, after a day at school, and after the weekend. Children with a television set in their rooms went to bed significantly later on weekdays and weekend days and got up significantly later on weekend days. Overall, they spent less time in bed on weekdays. Children with a gaming computer in their rooms went to bed significantly later on weekdays. On weekdays, they spent significantly less time in bed. Children who watched more television went to bed later on weekdays and weekend days and got up later on weekend days. They spent less time in bed on weekdays. They reported higher overall levels of being tired. Children who spent more time playing computer games went to bed later on weekdays and weekend days and got up later on weekend days. On weekdays, they actually got up significantly earlier. They spent less time in bed on weekdays and reported higher levels of tiredness. Children who spent more time using the Internet went to bed significantly later during the week and during the weekend. They got up later on weekend days. They spent less time in bed during the week and reported higher levels of tiredness. Going out was also significantly related to sleeping later and less. Concerns about media use should not be limited to television. Computer game playing and Internet use are related to sleep behavior as well. Leisure activities that are unstructured seem to be negatively related to good sleep patterns. Imposing more structure (eg, end times) might reduce impact.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date Collection: 2006

Publication date (Electronic): 8 March 2006

Volume: 6

Page: 59

Affiliations

[1 ]Nursing Department, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Wen-Hwa 1 ^stRoad, Kwei-Shan, Taoyuan, Taiwan

[2 ]Neurology Department, Tao-Yuan Veteran Hospital, Kwei-Shan, Taoyuan, Taiwan

Article

Publisher ID: 1471-2458-6-59

DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-6-59

PMC ID: 1447528

PubMed ID: 16524482

SO-VID: 47fcfdde-daa2-4c94-a41b-2a94923db125

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Adequate sleep among adolescents is positively associated with health status and health-related behaviors

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Abstract

Background

Methods

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Most cited references 22

Sleep quality versus sleep quantity: relationships between sleep and measures of health, well-being and sleepiness in college students.

Circadian preference, sleep and daytime behaviour in adolescence.

Television viewing, computer game playing, and Internet use and self-reported time to bed and time out of bed in secondary-school children.

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