It’s common knowledge teens need a good night’s sleep to function well. But recent Brock University-led international research has raised the stakes on what could happen if their slumber is inadequate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe observed a substantial risk of injury in adolescents who reported having poor sleep,\u201d says PhD student Valerie Pagnotta (BSc \u201921, MSc \u201923), lead author of the cross-national study \u201cSleep difficulties as a consistent risk factor for medically treated injuries among adolescents in 46 countries<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The worse the quality and quantity of sleep, the greater the risk of any or multiple injuries, says Pagnotta. Girls with poor sleep were particularly vulnerable to being injured.<\/p>\n The six-member research team set out to investigate the association of inadequate sleep to injuries in 46 countries.<\/p>\n Using records from the World Health Organization\u2019s ongoing Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey<\/a> and involving multiple international investigators in the HBSC network, the research team surveyed 230,000 adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 in Canada and 45 European countries.<\/p>\n Participants reported on their sleep behaviours, including how often they experienced difficulties falling asleep, insufficient quality and quantity of sleep on school and non-school days, and social jetlag, which refers to different sleep patterns during weekends and other non-school days.<\/p>\n Adolescents were also asked how often they had experienced an injury that required medical treatment from a doctor or nurse in the past year as well as if they had sustained a more serious injury that required a cast, stitches or surgery.<\/p>\n The findings from the teens\u2019 self-reported surveys include that:<\/p>\n Pagnotta says adolescence is a particularly important time for physical, emotional and social growth and development.<\/p>\n \u201cIf adolescents are not getting enough sleep or they’re having sleep difficulties, that can impair their cognitive functioning especially in the areas of social information processing, attention and decision making,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think these impairments may contribute to increased risk of injury among adolescents,\u201d she says, adding that the greater injury risk observed among girls needs further investigation.<\/p>\n Mentoring Pagnotta on the study were Brock Professor of Health Sciences William Pickett and Professor of Public Health Medicine Peter Donnelly at the University of St. Andrews in the U.K.<\/p>\n Pickett co-leads the HBSC study in Canada<\/a> under the World Health Organization\u2019s HBSC survey.<\/p>\n He says the relationships Pagnotta uncovered between sleep and injury are ” so consistent, and so powerful, that they can\u2019t be ignored in health policy efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a policy perspective, we think it is helpful for clinical and public health professionals to have data like this to support their efforts to advise their patients and populations around the importance of sleep hygiene, especially in children,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n