Sacrificing Sleep for Scores: A Cross Cultural Perspective on the Hidden Costs of Sleep Loss in Adolescents
In this issue of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, Quick et al. found that a nocturnal sleep duration of less than 8 hr appears to contribute to the development of maladaptive eating behaviors and attitudes in college students, which are in turn associated with a major health concern, that is, an increased risk of obesity (Quick et al. 2016) It should be noted that these same sleep related impairments involving executive functioning and decision making may occur in younger students as well, often with devastating results. In particular, chronic voluntary sleep restriction combined with academic stress in high school students may make them even more vulnerable to health, mood, behavior, and cognitive consequences. In a recent article published in the Journal of School Health, we explored the extent of voluntary sleep curtailment practiced by high school students in China in preparation for the national College Entrance Exam (CEE) and the association with concurrent academic performance and consequent CEE scores (Wang et al. 2016) Our results suggest that the gains and losses associated with sacrificing sleep for higher CEE scores should be cautiously weighed, and echo Quick et al.'s conclusions that sufficient sleep in young adults is critical to health, well being, and function. The CEE in China, similar to the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) is taken by an estimated 10 million 12th graders; however, 25% will fail to achieve an eligible score for college enrollment. Moreover, there are only a few top academic institutions like Peking University and thus students
Behavioral sleep medicine