Low-sleep quality associated with poor health among young students

Washington: There are more benefits to a good night's sleep than what meets the eye. According to a recent study, when it comes to Children's health, it's not the quantity of sleep that matters, but the quality of it.

With summer break and longer days ahead, parents of young teens may be wondering whether to let good sleep habits slide over the next couple of months. The findings, published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine, suggested that chronic low-quality sleep was associated with poorer health outcomes among young students.

Kids who regularly had trouble falling or staying asleep were almost two and a half times as likely to report sub-optimal or less than excellent health, compared to those who did not." According to the team of researchers, even if these teens had difficulty falling asleep just one night a week, if that was a regular occurrence over two years, it really seemed to affect their overall health.

"What was particularly interesting was that the relationship between chronic, poor-quality sleep and health outcome was stronger in the boys than it was in the girls," said study author Annalijn Conklin.