New study links teen sleep and exercise habits
Research shows close connection between two key health factors for adolescents
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Sleep and exercise both play a huge role in being healthy. For teens, both can help growth, brain development and good mental health.
A new study finds there’s a close link between the two.
It’s a rising problem. Around 77% of high schoolers reported not getting enough sleep on a CDC survey.
While sleep is an important pillar of health and well-being, a new study finds it’s also closely connected to another critical component — exercise.
“A lot of parents and teens don’t realize that there is a biological shift that occurs in the early teen years which delay the internal signals that make you tired, and this makes going to bed before 10:00 or 11 p.m. extremely difficult for teens,” said Kayla Johnson, behavioral health researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Johnson said changes need to be made at school and home to support sufficient sleep.
She said her team’s next study is looking into whether changing school start times can help teens get more sleep.
They’re studying whether going to school later allows teenaged students to go to bed a little later and sleep a bit later.
They want to research if that can help improve sleep by being more in line with their biological clock.
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