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Teens’ Sleep Deprivation Tied to Poor Diet, Obesity
Lauren Hale, Ph.D., an associate professor of preventive medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York discovered well-rested teenagers tend to make more healthful food choices than their sleep-deprived peers.
“Not only do sleepy teens on average eat more food that’s bad for them, they also eat less food that is good for them,” said Hale.
“While we already know that sleep duration is associated with a range of health consequences, this study speaks to some of the mechanisms, i.e., nutrition and decision-making, through which health outcomes are affected.”
The study examined the association between sleep duration and food choices in a national representative sample of 13,284 teenagers with a mean age of 16 years.
The authors found that those teens who reported sleeping fewer than seven hours per night — 18 percent of respondents — were more likely to consume fast food two or more times per week and less likely to eat healthful food such as fruits and vegetables.
The results took into account factors such as age, gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical activity and family structure, and found that short sleep duration had an independent effect on both healthy and unhealthy food choices.
Researchers found participants generally fell into three groups: short sleepers, who received fewer than seven hours per night; mid-range sleepers, who had seven to eight hours per night; and recommended sleepers, who received more than eight hours per night.
The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that adolescents get between nine and 10 hours of sleep per night.
“We are interested in the association between sleep duration and food choices in teenagers because adolescence is a critical developmental period between childhood and adulthood,” said the first author of the study, Allison Kruger, M.P.H.
“Teenagers have a fair amount of control over their food and sleep, and the habits they form in adolescence can strongly impact their habits as adults.”
The research team concluded that addressing sleep deficiency may be a novel and effective way to improve obesity prevention and health promotion interventions.
Hale said that one of the next steps in the research will be to explore whether the association between sleep duration and food choices is causal.
“If we determine that there is a causal link between chronic sleep and poor dietary choices, then we need to start thinking about how to more actively incorporate sleep hygiene education into obesity prevention and health promotion interventions,” she said.
Source: Stony Brook University
Teenager sleeping photo by shutterstock.
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