Poor Sleep Among Teens Linked to Poor Cardiometabolic Health

By Kelly Young

Edited by William E. Chavey, MD, MS

Poor sleep quality among adolescents is associated with unfavorable cardiometabolic markers, according to a cross-sectional Pediatrics study.

To assess sleep quality and duration, over 800 adolescents wore wrist actigraphy devices for 7 to 10 days and completed sleep logs. Only 2% of participants got the minimum average amount of sleep recommended by the National Sleep Foundation (8 hours a day for 14-to-17-year-olds, 9 hours for 11-to-13-year-olds).

Longer sleep duration and better sleep efficiency were associated with lower metabolic risk scores, which included lower abdominal adiposity, lower systolic blood pressure, and higher HDL cholesterol.

The authors note: "BMI and obesity-related behaviors cannot be used to account fully for the associations, which suggests there may be additional physiologic pathways such as abnormalities in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system that account for sleep's influence on cardiometabolic health in early adolescence."