How Are Adolescents Sleeping? Adolescent Sleep Patterns and Sociodemographic Differences in 24 European and North American Countries

Abstract

Insufficient and poor sleep patterns are common among adolescents worldwide. Up to now, the evidence on adolescent sleep has been mostly informed by country-specific studies that used different measures and age groups, making direct comparisons difficult. Cross-national data on adolescent sleep that could inform nations and international discussions are lacking. We examined the sleep patterns of adolescents across 24 countries and by gender, age, and affluence groups. Methods: We obtained sleep data on 165,793 adolescents (mean age 13.5 years; 50.5% girls) in 24 European and North American countries from the recent cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children surveys (2013e2014 and 2017e2018). For each country, we calculated the age-standardized mean in sleep duration, timing, and consistency and the proportions meeting IMPLICATIONS AND CONTRIBUTION Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Disclosure: This supplement was supported by the World Health Organization European Office and the University of Glasgow. The articles have been peerreviewed and edited by the editorial staff of the Journal of Adolescent Health. The opinions or views expressed in this supplement are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the funder.

Independent associations of sleep timing, duration and quality with adiposity and weight status in a national sample of adolescents: the UK Millennium Cohort Study

“…Around the same time parental enforcement of bedtimes typically fade, academic pressures increase, social networks expand, and sedentary screen-based activities which are stimulating or produce light stimuli increasingly take place late into evenings; these factors reinforce evening alertness and perpetuate a cycle of late sleep onset [1]. When accompanied by imposed early mornings for school insufficient sleep and tiredness result; both are prevalent in adolescents worldwide [2, 3]. This has far-reaching ramifications for health and well-being, including repercussions for adiposity levels and obesity risk [4].…”

Sleep in older adolescents. Results from a large cross‐sectional, population‐based study

“…Based on available scientific evidence, the US National Sleep Foundation in 2015 published recommendations that teenagers aged 14–17 years should obtain 8–10 h of sleep each night (Hirshkowitz et al., 2015). However, research indicates that adolescents worldwide sleep less than this (Gariepy et al., 2020; Gradisar et al., 2011; Owens & Weiss, 2017).…”

New Findings From the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey: Social Media, Social Determinants, and Mental Health

“…Overall, 18.0% of girls and 10.2% of boys reported weight reduction behaviors; however, there was a significant increase in the prevalence of weight reduction behaviors among boys but not girls in most countries [9]. Gariepy et al [10] examine sleep patterns of adolescents and find insufficient sleep on school days to be a cross-national phenomenon. The proportion of adolescents meeting sleep recommendations ranged between 32% and 86% on school days; thus, strategies and policies to encourage adolescent sleep particularly on school days should be encouraged.…”