Researchers studied 176 teenagers prone to staying up late, aged 10 to 18, in a sleep treatment trial. Every teen was already at risk in at least one area of health. ADHD was part of the selection criteria: a teen could meet the behavioral at risk criterion through an ADHD diagnosis or medication, high sensation seeking, or alcohol or substance abuse. Only pretreatment data were used, so this is a snapshot and cannot show cause.
Each teen got a sleep health score out of six parts, from a sleep diary and self report: regularity, satisfaction, alertness, timing, efficiency and duration. Complete scores existed for 175. Duration was rated poor most often, in 68.07% of the teens.
For each extra point on the score, emotional risk was lower (b = −0.19). Each figure here is that change per extra point. The emotional result was statistically significant (p < .001). Thinking domain risk moved the same way (b = −0.13). So did social domain risk (b = −0.09). Odds of obesity were lower too (OR = 0.60). The authors said sleep health was not linked to body mass index as a continuous measure. The behavioral domain pointed the same way without reaching significance (b = −0.07). So did the physical domain (b = −0.08). A separate measure of physical symptoms did track sleep health (b = −0.76). One result ran the other way: more romantic relationship problems (b = 0.22), which the authors call uncertain.
Source: Dong L, Martinez A, Buysse D, et al.. A composite measure of sleep health predicts concurrent mental and physical health outcomes in adolescents prone to eveningness. Sleep Health (2019). doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2018.11.009