Dose-dependent associations between sleep duration and unsafe behaviors among US high school students
Open accessAbstract
Youths in America are sleeping less than ever before.More than 70% of high school students average less than 8 hours of sleep, 1 falling short of the 8 to 10 hours that adolescents need for optimal health. 2 Insufficient sleep negatively affects learning and development and acutely alters judgment, particularly among youths.3 We estimated associations between sleep duration and personal safety risk-taking behaviors in US high school students.Methods | We used data from high school students who responded to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey between February 2007 and May 2015. 4 The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is administered biannually to a nationally representative sample of students of all ages enrolled in grades 9 to 12 at public and private schools.Sleep duration on an "average" school night was categorized as 8 hours or more, 7 hours, 6 hours, or less than 6 hours.Personal safety risk-taking behaviors were examined individually and as composite categories.We weighted all analyses to account for the complex survey design and controlled for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and year of survey in weighted logistic regression models to test the association between sleep duration and each outcome of interest.The study was exempt from institutional review board review, as this analysis used publicly available data without identifiable information and these activities are not considered human participants research.Data were originally collected with parental permission.Student participation was anonymous and voluntary.
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Sleep gains associated with later morning school start times might be responsible for the improvements in health and academic performance.
“Sleep gains associated with later morning SSTs might be responsible for these improvements because of the well-known associations between sleep, health, and cognitive functioning [11,34,35].”
From The Power of Flexible School Start Times: (2026) · cites this paper as [35]
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- Authors
- Weaver, M. D., Barger, L. K., Malone, S. K., Anderson, L. S., & Klerman, E. B.
- Affiliations
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
- New York University (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Corresponding author
- Weaver, Matthew D.
- Venue
- JAMA Pediatrics
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2018-12-01
- Volume
- 172
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1187
- ISSN
- 1072-4710 (ISSN-L)
- 2168-6203
- PMC
- PMC6366445
- OpenAlex
- W2894376125
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 6.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX15AM28G, NNX14AK53G, NNX15AC14G)
- Pfizer
- Sleep Research Society
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001102, UL1TR001445)
- National Institute on Aging (P01AG009975)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K24HL105664, F32HL134249, R01HL128538, R01HL114088, U01HL111478, T32HL007901)
- National Institute of Nursing Research (P20NR018075, K99NR017416)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM105018)
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (R01-OH-010300)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21HD086392)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Health and Behaviors
- Keywords
- sleep duration, insufficient sleep, adolescents, high school students, risk-taking, personal safety, youth risk behavior, dose-response relationship, Youth Risk Behavior Survey
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Dangerous Behavior, Female, Humans, Male, Risk-Taking, Schools, Sleep Deprivation, Students, Time Factors, United States
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