Sleeping is very important if you want to enhance your wellbeing. Besides, that researchers in Spain warn that poor sleeping habits can enhance the risk of being obese or overweight.
Not getting enough sleep contributes to obesity in teenagers.
Most adolescents like sleeping late since they consider it a rite of passage to adulthood, but researchers warn that it will be unhealthy. Compared to teenagers that get adequate sleep, those that sleep less than eight hours have a high chance of being obese or overweight. Besides this, shorter sleepers can also blend other undesirable traits like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and abnormal blood sugar levels, and extra belly fat.
Study author Mr. Jesús Martínez Gómez said that based on study findings, most adolescents don’t get enough sleep, and that is connected to being overweight and habits promoting weight gains. Gomez said that researchers are investigating if excess screen time can contribute to bad sleeping habits. Therefore, this explains why older teenagers sleep less than younger teens.
Staying up late is putting teenagers’ health at risk. The researchers evaluated connections between sleep time and health measures in teenagers registered in the SI Program for Secondary Schools study in Spain. Participants received wearable activity devices that measured their sleeping patterns for seven ta at ages 12, 14, and 16.
Children should sleep at least nine hours.
American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children below 12 years sleep for 9-12 hours while those between 13 and 18 should get a minimum of ten hours.
Findings indicate that only 34% of kids aged 12 slept at least eight hours, and at 14 years old, only 23% slept for eight hours. At 16 years old, only 16% of the teenagers slept more than eight hours. In addition, boys sleep less than teenage girls.
Children that sleep less are likely to be obese or overweight. So round, 21% of children aged 12 years who didn’t sleep well were either obese or overweight compared to those with adequate sleep. At 14 years the risk of obesity increased to 72%.
