Many teens
say they don’t sleep
enough to
stay alert

Many teenagers do not believe they are getting enough sleep to remain alert at school and stay healthy, research suggests.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Jul 2012, 07:00 BST

It reveals girls are more concerned about their sleeping habits than boys, and that youngsters are more likely to say they are not getting enough as they get older.

More than one in four 14- and 15-year-old girls (28 per cent), and just over a fifth of boys of the 
same age (22 per cent) do not think they sleep enough to concentrate on their studies, according to the Schools Health Education Unit.

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Their findings, drawn from surveys of thousands of schoolchildren aged from 10 to 15, show that fewer 12- and 13-year-olds (Year 8) are concerned about lack of sleep affecting their classwork.

A fifth (20 per cent) of Year 8 girls, and 16 per cent of boys said that the amount of sleep they normally get was not enough for them to concentrate on lessons.

The research shows 17 per cent of 12- and 13-year-old boys and the same number of girls say they don’t think they get enough sleep to stay healthy. This rose to 22 per cent among 14- and 15-year-old boys (Year 10) and 27 per cent of girls of the same age.

Overall, 80 per cent of Year 8 boys and 78 per cent of Year 8 girls said that they get eight hours or more sleep a night. This fell 65 per cent for Year 10 boys and girls.

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The study also reveals that many youngsters are spending much more time playing the computer and watching TV than doing homework. Asked how long they had spent doing homework the night before, 4 per cent of 14- and 15-year-old boys said that they had spent more than three hours on it.

But almost a fifth (19 per cent) of boys of this age said that they had spent more than three hours playing computer games, and 14 per cent had spent more than three hours watching TV.

Among girls in the same age group, 10 per cent had spent over three hours on homework, 5 per cent had spent this long playing computer games, and 15 per cent had spent over three hours watching TV.

Maggie Fisher, health visitor for parenting website Netmums, said: “Sleep experts advise all electronic devices to be switch of at least 30 minutes before bedtime or it can affect sleep quality and brainwave patterns.

“However what we are seeing is many children sleeping with smartphones tucked under their pillows which prevents restful sleep.”