December 24, 2018.
Lack of sleep in adolescents would have serious consequences on their health. An American study has, once again, proved it.
Lack of sleep promotes teenagers’ dark thoughts
What if the dark thoughts, characteristic of certain adolescent crises, were the simple consequence of a lack of sleep? This is what American researchers, teachers at Harvard, tried to demonstrate in a recent study published in the journal Jama Pediatrics last October. According to them, sleeping less than six hours a night, at the age of adolescence, would promote melancholy and suicidal thoughts..
To reach this conclusion, these researchers subjected, during nine years, 68,000 teenagers to a questionnaire to determine their number of hours of sleep per night as well as their behavior and their level of anxiety. This questionnaire allowed them to cross-check different data, and to determine that many adolescents were depriving themselves of sleep. They would be 70% to sleep less than eight hours a night.
Diabetes, obesity are also consequences of sleep deprivation
Gold, under six hours a night, sleep deprivation would have serious effects on the brain since, according to the researchers, it would cause ” reduced activity of the prefrontal cortex, that area of the brain that is involved in executive functions and logical reasoning “Says Matthew Weaver, lead author of this study.
Lack of sleep is, according to this study, also linked to a increased risk of consuming alcohol, taking drugs, and having unsafe sexual activity but not only. According to Santé Publique France, which has repeatedly issued recommendations on adolescent sleep, sleep deprivation also promotes the onset of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Gaelle Latour
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