Feasibility and impact on daytime sleepiness of an experimental protocol inducing variable sleep duration in adolescents.

Although most research on sleep and adolescent health has focused on how long each youth sleeps on average, variability in sleep duration may be just as problematic. Existing findings have been inconsistent and unable to address cause-effect relationships. This study piloted an experimental protocol to induce sleep variability and explore its impact on daytime sleepiness in adolescents.

Inducing more sleep on school nights reduces sedentary behavior without affecting physical activity in short-sleeping adolescents.

Objectives/background: Short sleep duration during adolescence is associated with increased dietary intake and greater risk for overweight/obesity. However, findings are mixed on the relationship between sleep and physical activity (PA) during the school year, when short sleep duration is most common. Furthermore, there is concern that increasing sleep duration may interfere with opportunities for PA, yet this has not been directly tested.

Feasibility and Emotional Impact of Experimentally Extending Sleep in Short-Sleeping Adolescents.

Study Objectives: Published experimental sleep manipulation protocols for adolescents have been limited to the summer, limiting causal conclusions about how short sleep affects them on school nights, when they are most likely to restrict their sleep. This study assesses the feasibility and emotional impact of a school-night sleep manipulation protocol to test the effects of lengthening sleep in habitually short-sleeping adolescents.

Methods: High school students aged 14-18 years who habitually slept 5-7 hours on school nights participated in a 5-week experimental sleep manipulation protocol.