Quality Sleep for Teen Health

New research from the University of British Columbia suggests there are more benefits to a good night's sleep than simply feeling refreshed. Chronic, low-quality sleep was associated with poorer health outcomes among young students. Children who regularly had trouble falling or staying asleep were almost two and half times as likely to report sub-optimal or less than excellent health, compared to those who did not, according to the researchers.

The study, published in Preventive Medicine, looked at 3,104 students in British Columbia aged 13 to 17 years, over a period of two years.Even if these teens had difficulty falling asleep just one night a week, if that was a regular occurrence over two years, it really seemed to affect their overall health. What was particularly interesting was that the relationship between chronic, poor-quality sleep and health outcome was stronger in the boys than it was in the girls.