Inadequate Sleep Increasingly Affects Teens, Study Warns

(Newswire.net — June 2, 2022) Orlando, FL — Health authorities have time and again strongly stressed the relevance of getting adequate sleep, which is vital for various aspects of health.

A new study has warned that young people are getting less sleep to spend more time on their phones and tablets.

This research was spearheaded by San Diego State University Professor of Psychology Jean Twenge.

It particularly showed that adolescents nowadays are sleeping fewer hours every night compared to older generations, and it is believed to be due to their smartphone use. 

A majority of sleep experts concur that adolescents require 9 hours of sleep every night to be productive and engaged students. Further, less than 7 hours of slumber is considered to be insufficient.

Twenge along with psychologist Zlatan Krizan and graduate student Garrett Hisler — both at Iowa State University in Ames – looked into data from two long-running, government-funded, nationally representative surveys of over 360,000 teenagers.

This “Monitoring the Future survey” asked students in the United States who were in their 8th, 10th, and 12th grades how frequently they were able to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep.

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey, on the other hand, asked 9th-12th-grade students the number of sleep they got on an average school night.

Through combining and analyzing data from both surveys, the investigators suggest that around 40 percent of adolescents in 2015 slept less than 7 hours a night. It is worth noting that it is 58 percent more than in 1991 and 17 percent more than in 2009.

The findings of this research were published in the Sleep Medicine journal.

“Teens’ sleep began to shorten just as the majority started using smartphones,” said Twenge, author of iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — And Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.

“It’s a very suspicious pattern.”

The relevance of sleep can be dangerous to overlook. In various research studies, it has been shown that sleep inadequacy leads to various undesirable health outcomes. 

Experts time and again stress the relevance of taking some measures helpful in improving sleep. There are all-natural ingredients like lion’s mane found to have sleep-enhancing benefits. It has anti-inflammatory, cognitive-decline-fighting, nerve repairing, neuroprotective, cardiovascular-health enhancing, blood-pressure-lowering, immunity-boosting, cholesterol-regulating, and weight management properties. 

According to studies, lion’s mane promotes NGFs, which offer support to the body’s natural rhythms of sleep and wakefulness. Researchers even suggest it could be helpful in battling insomnia. 

It can be obtained through the use of formulas like Divine Bounty Lion’s Mane. (amazon.com/Organic-Lions-Mane-Mushroom-Capsules/dp/B07LGR1KN7).