Sleep-deprived teens may be risking health
Study shows poor quality sleep linked to increased risk of high blood pressure
CLEVELAND – Sleep-deprived adolescents risk more than daytime drowsiness. They may be priming their hearts for disease in adulthood.
Researchers say they have shown for the first time that lack of sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure in healthy teens.
The researchers said part of the problem is that iPods, cell phones and computers are cutting into teens’ sleep time.
The findings involved 238 Cleveland-area kids, ages 13 to 16, who are part of an ongoing, federally sponsored study of sleep and health at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
Researchers analyzed sleep logs and data from wristwatch-like devices containing microprocessors that measure nighttime movements. They found risk of high blood pressure was two to three times higher among kids who slept less than 6 1/2 hours and those who had poor sleep quality.
“It was actually poor quality sleep – the time in bed actually asleep – that was most strongly associated with high blood pressure, rather than short sleep duration,” said Dr. Susan Redline, a Case Western Reserve University professor and director of the UH sleep center.
Inadequate length of sleep also increased risk but not as much as poor sleep quality.
The problem was worst among poor and minority kids, which researchers said is a concern because those groups already have elevated risk of cardiovascular problems.
Excluded from the study were teens with sleep apnea, a breathing disturbance linked to a number of ills.
Sleep specialists said primary-care doctors should view the results as more reason to ask about sleep habits as part of overall health assessment.
“It’s equally important as diet and exercise,” said Dr. Daniel Glaze, director of the sleep center at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Glaze said the new study is significant because most research on the health effects of poor sleep pertain to adults.
“The question is, if the child is having problems at this age, what will happen to them as adults?” he said. The study is to be published in the Sept. 2 issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
Redline has conducted population studies of health and sleep in Greater Cleveland since 1990. The teens in the current study are among a group of 900 children the researchers began following 10 years ago.