Home > Clinical Research > Adolescent Knowledge of Sleep Health
Proponents: Salena Bath, Rob Velzeboer, Dr. Wayne Lai, MD
In January of 2022, UBC student Salena Baths conducted a small research study with Tranq Sleep Care at a local high school in the Okanagan to assess adolescent knowledge about sleep. Salena found that students have a poor understanding of the effects of napping and sleeping in and underestimate the negative effects of cannabis use and smoking cigarettes on their sleep, but that they are very aware that students are getting too little sleep and rate their own sleep health poorly. While boys’ and girls’ sleep quality and habits do not differ, girls showed to have better knowledge of sleep hygiene than boys of the same age.
Adequate sleep is essential for adolescents to function at an optimal level, as disruption in their sleep can lead to negative physical, mental, and emotional health outcomes [1-3]. Poor sleep increases the risk of obesity [4] and some researchers estimate a three-fold increase in Major Depressive Disorder for adolescents with inadequate sleep [5-7], while optimal sleep is linked to more personal growth and positive feelings of purpose in life [1,8].
Adolescence is one of the most critical times to get adequate sleep in our lives, as it is a time of important physical and psychological changes. Due to changes in their circadian rhythm, increased demands of school due to homework and extracurricular activities, and fixed morning start times, most adolescents are not achieving the suggested nine hours of sleep, with a recent report in the US finding that about 70 percent of high school students do not meet this standard [9-10]. There is a clear need to address issues surrounding adolescents' sleep habits and hygiene in order to optimize health promoting behaviors.
In the past, researchers have tried various educational programs to improve knowledge about sleep hygiene and the negative impact of sleep deprivation on adolescent health. While these programs are effective at increasing students' sleep knowledge, they tend to see minimal translation into behavioral change towards developing better sleep habits [11-14]. Since no study has been conducted in British Columbia, Canada, we designed a sleep knowledge questionnaire to assess students' understanding of sleep hygiene and assess what areas need most improvement.
Many different behaviors and outcomes were surveyed: the practices of sleeping in and taking naps; the substances caffeine, nicotine, cannabis, and alcohol; electronics use in and before bed; and health outcomes such as blood pressure, heart disease, depression, memory, acne, and sports performance.
Students showed the following beliefs about sleep:
1.) Taking naps is a good way to make up for lost sleep
2.) Sleeping in is a good way to make up for lost sleep
3.) Cannabis use has no negative effect on sleep
4.) Smoking cigarettes helps people to relax and fall asleep
While the effects of napping and sleeping in are not exactly understood, the idea that lost sleep can be made up by engaging in napping and sleeping in may damage adolescent’s sleep cycles. Most students correctly believed that a large number of students get too little sleep. It was also understood by the majority of students that caffeine and alcohol as well as smartphone use are bad before sleep, and that a lack of sleep affects our health in several ways.
The students rated their own sleep habits as a 5.8/10. After watching an educational video, the students improved their knowledge, but it proved to be more effective for girls than for boys and younger students performed better than older students. The older the student, the more likely they believed cannabis did not have a negative impact on their sleep, which may be the consequence of an increasing number of North American adolescents using cannabis as a sleep aid [15]. The students did not rate their sleep quality or habits any differently three months after watching the video. Tranq Sleep Care is looking to improve this program and expand knowledge about sleep to adolescents moving forward.
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