Many adolescents consider staying up late a rite of passage into adulthood. While burning the midnight oil can be fun occasionally, new research out of Spain warns that poor sleep habits among teens increases their risk of becoming overweight or obese.
More specifically, teens sleeping less than eight hours nightly are more likely to be overweight or obese in comparison to their more well-rested peers. Similarly, “shorter sleepers” are also more likely “to have a combination of other unhealthy characteristics” including excess fat around the waist, high blood pressure, and abnormal blood lipid or glucose levels
“Our study shows that most teenagers do not get enough sleep and this is connected with excess weight and characteristics that promote weight gain, potentially setting them up for future problems,” says study author Mr. Jesús Martínez Gómez, a researcher in training at the Cardiovascular Health and Imaging Laboratory, Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), in a media release. “We are currently investigating whether poor sleep habits are related to excessive screen time, which could explain why older adolescents get even less sleep than younger ones.”
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