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Sleepy, Gadget-Crazed Teens May Be at Risk for Heart Attacks

by Tim Stevens on August 19, 2008 at 02:20 PM

Sleepy, Gadget-Crazed Teens At Risk for Heart Attacks
It's been said that today's teenagers are getting "junk sleep" thanks to their gadgets, with 30-percent of students indicating they only get four to seven hours' worth on an average night. Now, some researchers have examined the health implications of such limited sleep in a new study showing that sleepless teens were three-times more likely to have high blood pressure than those dozing for a full eight hours.

Teens are said to be staying up all night texting instead of getting some good Z's, with the net result being a higher incidence of heart attacks down the road. The study was recently published in 'Circulation,' the journal of the American Heart Association, and conducted by Susan Redline from a Cleveland sleep disorder clinic. It followed the habits of 238 teens and is the first such study to have been performed linking kids' lack of sleep to blood pressure. Despite a limited test group, it's no shocker that missing sleep is a bad thing. However, as usual we're not so quick to blame technology for all of the woes of today's kids. We weren't always particularly well rested when we were young, and most of us predate texting by quite a few years -- even decades. [From: textually.org]

Tags: gadgets, health, sleep, teens, texting

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