Sleep-deprived teens find it harder to cope with stress

If your teenage son or daughter is reacting badly to stress, he or she might be in need of better quality sleep, according to research published online in Physiology and Behavior.
 Lack of sleep in teens leads to extra stress and poor functioning.
Nearly 70% of American adolescents lack sleep. Shortage of sleep and other difficulties with sleeping can lead to cognitive problems and poor physical health over time. Now it seems that sleep problems or sleeping for too long can make adolescents more reactive to stress, potentially affecting academic performance, behavior and health.
The key could lie in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or HPA axis, a part of the neuroendocrine system that controls reactions to stress and regulates many body processes. The association between sleep and the HPA axis has been studied in both children and adults. However, what happens during puberty, a key period of development when both sleep and the HPA axis are undergoing significant changes, is unclear.
Sylvie Mrug and colleagues, from the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) and Arizona State University, wanted to investigate the relationship between sleep and reactivity to stress in adolescents, focusing on the HPA-axis activity.
They examined two dimensions of sleep, sleep duration and sleep problems, from the perspectives of adolescents and their parents, as well as cortisol levels before and after social stress. They also compared the results based on gender. The selected participants were 84 urban, black adolescents with an average age of 13 years. This population was chosen because a lack of sleep was already known to have a negative impact on their functioning.
The researchers hoped that the results would prove helpful for this population. The young people completed the children's version of a common stress test, the Trier Social Stress Test, to measure their physiological responses to stress. The test involves speaking and computing mental math problems in front of an audience. Cortisol levels were assessed by comparing saliva samples before and after the test.
Participants and their parents then reported on the adolescents' sleep habits, including bedtimes, waking times and any sleep problems, such as insomnia, daytime sleepiness and general sleep quality, during a regular week.
  Medical News Today

Sleep-deprived teens find it harder to cope with stress

If your teenage son or daughter is reacting badly to stress, he or she might be in need of better quality sleep, according to research published online in Physiology and Behavior. Lack of sleep in teens leads to extra stress and poor functioning. Nearly 70% of American adolescents lack sleep. Shortage of sleep and other difficulties with sleeping can lead to cognitive problems and poor physical health over time. Now it seems that sleep problems or sleeping for too long can make adolescents more reactive to stress, potentially affecting academic performance, behavior and health. The key could lie in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or HPA axis, a part of the neuroendocrine system that controls reactions to stress and regulates many body processes. The association between sleep and the HPA axis has been studied in both children and adults. However, what happens during puberty, a key period of development when both sleep and the HPA axis are undergoing significant changes, is unclear. Sylvie Mrug and colleagues, from the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) and Arizona State University, wanted to investigate the relationship between sleep and reactivity to stress in adolescents, focusing on the HPA-axis activity. They examined two dimensions of sleep, sleep duration and sleep problems, from the perspectives of adolescents and their parents, as well as cortisol levels before and after social stress. They also compared the results based on gender. The selected participants were 84 urban, black adolescents with an average age of 13 years. This population was chosen because a lack of sleep was already known to have a negative impact on their functioning. The researchers hoped that the results would prove helpful for this population. The young people completed the childrens version of a common stress test, the Trier Social Stress Test, to measure their physiological responses to stress. The test involves speaking and computing mental math problems in front of an audience. Cortisol levels were assessed by comparing saliva samples before and after the test. Participants and their parents then reported on the adolescents sleep habits, including bedtimes, waking times and any sleep problems, such as insomnia, daytime sleepiness and general sleep quality, during a regular week. Medical News Today