A Swedish study from Uppsala University, says that teens who are facing sleeping problems are most likely to perform very poorly at school.
Researchers involved 20,000 teens between the ages of 12 and 19 in the study. Among the population, they found out that those who get fewer than seven hours of sleep per night or those who have irregular sleeping habits are more likely to flunk out of school than those students who have healthy sleep habits.
According to the study this lack of sleep can result in the loss of brain tissue. Researchers also found out that even just one night of sleep deprivation increases morning blood concentrations of certain molecules that, when they arise, indicate brain damage. In support to these findings, a British study states that not getting enough sleep can cause a person's brain to shrink.
Researchers at Oxford University studied 147 adults between the ages of 20 and 84 undergo two MRI brain scans an average of 3 1/2 years apart before completing a questionnaire about sleep habits.
The study found 35% of the participants met the criteria for poor sleep quality and those with sleep difficulties experienced a more rapid decline in brain volume over the course of the study.
The lead author Christian Benedict said in a press release that similar observations have been made in other adolescent cohorts, indicating that sleep problems among adolescents have reached an epidemic level in our modern society.
"There are effective treatments for sleeping problems, so future research needs to test whether improving people's quality of sleep could slow the rate of brain volume loss," study author Claire Sexton said in a press release.
In a recent report by the CDC, schools are urged by health officials to consider having classes begin later during the evening to give students an extended bedtime during mornings. This is after several studies have confirmed that the lack of sleepiness among adolescent school kids is dictated by biology rather than any kid's choice to stay up late at night.
