Poor Sleep Hurts Young and Old

While we often hear about working adults' lack of shut-eye, two studies released this week show that both teens and seniors also suffer from not sleeping enough--or well enough.

The first, published in the yesterday's Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, showed a direct link between low grades and inadequate, poor or irregular sleep in adolescents. Surveying 238 middle and high school students, University of Colorado School of Medicine researcher John F. Pagel M.D. encountered an overall high frequency of sleep disturbances. He further found that students with lower GPAs were more likely to report experiencing restless legs when trying to fall asleep, snoring, difficulty waking up and falling asleep and problems concentrating and staying alert during the day.

That a lack of zzz's hurts kids' grades may not be too shocking. However an Australian study published in the Journals of Gerontology has shown it can also lead to an increased risk of falling in seniors. A survey of 300 people age 65 and over found that seniors who experienced nocturnal awakenings and poor sleep quality were more likely to fall that those with no sleep disturbances.

Read more: Sleep Disturbances Affect Classroom Performance
Read more: Sleep Disturbances and Falls in Older People