If teenagers abuse drugs, they are more likely to stay up late with friends and become sleep-deprived. Now a new study from the University of California at San Diego finds the opposite can be true: sleep deprivation causes teenagers to have behavioral problems and fewer inhibitions, which in turn leads to drug abuse.

• Professor Sara Mednick and her team used research from the United States National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health based on questionnaires of 8350 teenagers over an eight-year period.
• They found large clusters of teenagers in social networks in which it was common to use drugs and sleep fewer than seven hours a night.
  
• Teenagers who had friends who used marijuana were twice as likely to use it themselves.

Previous studies have shown that behaviors such as smoking, drinking, weight gain, depression and happiness are "socially contagious" and spread through social networks.

"It really means that were all connected," Dr. Mednick said. "All of our behaviors lead to other behaviors, and when we think about treating one issue in isolation, we're missing the point that treating an entire milieu is probably more effective."

Labels: drug use, deprivation, sleep

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A new study has revealed that teenagers who sleep less than seven hours a night are more likely to abuse marijuana.

• Researchers from Harvard University and University of California in San Diego studied the sleep patterns and drug use of 8,000 teenagers.
  
• Teens who have friends who sleep less than seven hours a night are also more likely to sleep fewer than seven hours.
  
• Teens with friends who use marijuana were more than twice as likely to use it themselves.
  
• Teens with friends who both sleep less than seven hours and use marijuana are 20 times more likely to use marijuana themselves.

The researchers believe that increasing the number of hours teens sleep each night might help reduce the prevalence of teen abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

This study was presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Labels: marijuana, sleep

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has conducted a study to determine the effects of insomnia on adolescents. Researchers found that sleep is not the only thing that is lost.

"The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found adolescents with chronic insomnia were much more likely to have problems with drug use, depression, school work, jobs and perceived health."

More than 3,000 teens were interviewed as part of the study, and more than 25 percent were found to have one or more symptoms of insomnia. Read more at UPI.com.

Labels: sleep, risky_behaviors, insomnia

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Researchers at the Ohio State University looked into 18.6 million visits to doctors by children ages 6 to 12 years who had problems falling asleep. Three-quarters of them received prescription sleep aids that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use by children.

"The concern with sleep medications is that we do not know how much to use and how long to use these drugs for children," said Professor Milap Nahata of the College of Pharmacy in Columbus. He and his colleagues collected data recorded between 1993 and 2004 by the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

A 2004 study from the National Sleep Foundation found that about 60% of children under age 11 have trouble sleeping. Dr. Nahata's study appears in the August 1 issue of Sleep.

Learn more about teenage drug abuse and other issues facing today's teens at Teen-Help-Directory.com.

Labels: sleep, children, prescription_drugs

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