Teenagers That Are Sleep Deprived Make Poor Dietary Choices, Study Finds

Teenagers that are sleep deprived make poor dietary choices compared to their well-rested peers, a new study finds.

Sleep deprivation has many ill effects on the body as well as the lifestyle a person leads. Researchers from Stony Brook University School of Medicine find that this could also affect the dietary choices a person makes. The findings of the study reveal that teenagers who are deprived of sleep tend to eat more unhealthy food than their well-rested peers who make healthy choices with regards to the food they consume.

"Not only do sleepy teens on average eat more food that's bad for them, they also eat less food that is good for them," Lauren Hale, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine said in a press release. "While we already know that sleep duration is associated with a range of health consequences, this study speaks to some of the mechanisms, i.e., nutrition and decision making, through which health outcomes are affected."

For the study, researchers looked into the data of 13,284 teenagers which was collected in 1996 for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

These sleep deprived teenagers were divided into three groups. The first group, "short sleepers," consisted of those teenagers who received fewer than seven hours sleep per night. The second group, "middle-range sleepers," consisted of those teenagers who received between seven to eight hours of sleep and the third group "recommended sleepers" consisted of those teenagers who received more than eight hours per night. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, teenagers are recommended to receive at least nine to ten hours of sleep per night.

Researchers found that teenagers who reported having less than 7 hours of sleep at night were more likely to eat fast food at least two or three times a week and less likely to eat healthy food such as fruits and vegetables.

"We are interested in the association between sleep duration and food choices in teenagers because adolescence is a critical developmental period between childhood and adulthood," said the first author of the study, Allison Kruger, MPH, a community health worker at Stony Brook University Hospital. "Teenagers have a fair amount of control over their food and sleep, and the habits they form in adolescence can strongly impact their habits as adults."

Authors of the study noted that they will conduct further studies in the future to assess whether this link between sleep deprivation and food choices is just a casual one or there is some form of brain mechanism that creates this link.