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Investigators from East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate the association of use of technology prior to going to bed and insufficient sleep. Study participants were children enrolled in the seventh grade in the fall of 2017 at 1 of 47 schools in 10 counties in North Carolina who were participating a school-based wellness program. Data were analyzed on those children in the program who had height and weight measured for BMI determination and who completed a questionnaire on sleep and technology use. Participant sex and race data also were collected. Socioeconomic status was approximated for each participant by school-level participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), with higher percentages of participation indicative of lower SES. The primary study outcome was insufficient sleep, defined as a self-report of sleeping <8 hours/night. The main exposure of interest was high technology use (TU), which was based on a student reporting use of a form of technology within 1 hour of trying to go to sleep either “a few nights each week,” or “every night or almost every night.” The bivariate association between insufficient sleep and self-report of having a TV in the bedroom, being overweight (BMI ≥85th and <95th percentile for age) or obese (BMI >95th percentile for age), sex, race, and SES also were evaluated using chi-square tests. Logistic regression was used to determine the independent association of these variables and insufficient sleep.
Data were analyzed on 3,956 seventh graders, of whom 38.7% reported getting insufficient sleep (<8 hours/night), 83.1% reported high TU, and 72.9% reported having a TV in their bedroom. There were no significant differences in reporting insufficient sleep by sex (P = 0.116), or race (P = 0.160), and these characteristics were not included in the multivariate model. In the multivariate logistic model, high TU was an independent predictor of insufficient sleep (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.46, 0.61), indicating that the risk of sleep <8 hours/night was almost twice as high in those with high TU. Having a TV in the bedroom (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70, 0.95) and being obese (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70, 0.95) also were significantly associated with sleeping <8 hours/night. There was no significant association between being overweight and insufficient sleep (OR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.71, 1.01), but children in schools with higher participation in the NSLP were at significantly increased risk for reporting <8 hour/night of sleep.
The authors conclude that seventh graders reporting high bedtime TU were at increased risk for insufficient sleep.
Dr Candee has disclosed no financial relationship relevant to this commentary. This commentary does not contain a discussion of an unapproved/investigative use of a commercial product/device.
Adolescent sleep deprivation is a growing health problem...
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