Do low to middle class income students get enough sleep each night? To find out, researchers enrolled 250 healthy high school students from low to middle class families who attended public school. Using actigraphy and sleep diaries, students tracked sleep patterns for one week.
Researchers for the study, “Sleep in Healthy Black and White Adolescents,” in the May 2014 Pediatrics (published online April 21) assessed students’ sleep duration, fragmentation, quality and daytime sleepiness.
Black participants and male participants slept less and had more fragmented sleep. Females reported poorer quality of sleep and more daytime sleepiness. All in all, most students slept less than the suggested 8 to 9 hours per night, averaging approximately 6 hours on school nights. Poor sleep may play a role in the substantial health risks experienced by this demographic group.
The authors conclude that pediatricians should routinely screen adolescent patients about their sleep, especially those from at-risk subgroups.