Most teens lacking enough shut-eye

WASHINGTON — America is raising a nation of sleep-deprived kids, with only 20 percent getting the recommended nine hours of shut-eye on school nights and more than one in four reporting dozing off in class.

Many are arriving late to school because of oversleeping and others are driving drowsy, according to a poll released today by the National Sleep Foundation.

"In the competition between the natural tendency to stay up late and early school start times, a teen's sleep is what loses out," said Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Nearly all the youngsters — 97 percent — had at least one electronic device in their bedroom. These include televisions, computers, phones or music devices. Adolescents with four or more such devices in their bedrooms are much more likely than their peers to get insufficient sleep, the foundation reported.

"Those with four or more electronic devices in their bedroom were twice as likely to fall asleep in school," Mindell said.

"Sending students to school without enough sleep is like sending them to school without breakfast. Sleep serves not only a restorative function for adolescents' bodies and brains, but it is also a key time when they process what they've learned during the day," she said.

School-age children and teenagers should get at least nine hours of sleep a day, according to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The poll found that sixth-graders were sleeping an average of 8.4 hours on school nights and 12th-graders just 6.9 hours.

Without enough sleep, a person has trouble focusing and responding quickly, according to the NIH. There is growing evidence linking a chronic lack of sleep with an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and infections, it added.

The poll, taken in November, interviewed 1,602 adult caregivers and their children age 11 to 17. It had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

• Twenty-eight percent of high-school students said they fell asleep in class at least once a week. In addition, 22 percent dozed off doing homework and 14 percent arrive late or miss school because they oversleep.

• Fifty-one percent of adolescent drivers have been on the road while drowsy in the past year.

• Four-fifths of students who get the recommended amount of sleep are achieving As and Bs in school; those who get less sleep are more likely to get lower grades.

• Twenty-eight percent of adolescents say they are too tired to exercise.

• Just 20 percent of adolescents said they get nine hours of sleep on school nights and 45 percent reported sleeping less than eight hours.

According to the NIH, sleep needs vary from person to person and change throughout life.

For example, newborns sleep 16 to 18 hours a day; children in preschool sleep between 10 and 12 hours a day; school-age children and teenagers should get at least nine hours of sleep a day. Adults should get seven to eight hours of sleep each day.

The foundation describes itself as an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public health and safety by studying sleep and sleep disorders. It is funded by memberships, sales of educational materials, advertising, investment income, individual donations, subscriptions and grants.

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers is included in this report.