This study found that reduced amounts of sleep are associated with overweight and obese status. Interventions manipulating total sleep time could elucidate a cause-and-effect relationship between insufficient sleep and obesity.

Insufficient sleep is a risk factor for depression, suicidality, and substance use, yet little is known about gender, ethnic, and community-level differences in sleep and its associated outcomes, especially during adolescence. Further, much of the prior work has compared groups of teens getting plenty as opposed to insufficient amounts of sleep rather than examine sleep hours continuously. The present study examined adolescent weekday self-reported sleep duration and its links with hopelessness, suicidality, and substance use in a suburban community with very early high school start times. We utilized a large (N = 27,939, 51.2% female) and ethnically diverse sample of adolescents from the 2009 Fairfax County (Virginia) Youth Survey, an anonymous, self-report, population-level survey administered to all 8th, 10th and 12th grade students in public schools in the county. High-school students reported an average 6.5 h of sleep per school night, with 20% obtaining ≤5 h, and only 3% reporting the recommended 9 h/night. Females and minority youth obtained even less sleep on average, and the reduction in sleep in the transition from middle school to high school was more pronounced for females and for Asian students. Hierarchical, multivariate, logistic regression analyses, controlling for background variables, indicated that just 1 h less of weekday sleep was associated with significantly greater odds of feeling hopeless, seriously considering suicide, suicide attempts, and substance use. Relationships between sleep duration and suicidality were stronger for male teens, and sleep duration was more associated with hopelessness for white students compared to most ethnic minority groups. Implications for intervention at multiple levels are discussed.

R esearch suggests that teens require more than 9 hours of sleep per night in order to function optimally. Insufficient sleep in teens is common 2 and could eventuate in excessive sleepiness 3 and such onerous consequences as academic difficulties, behavioral abnormalities, 4,5 mood disorders and perhaps even increased risk of suicidal ideation. 6 A potential critical consequence of insufficient sleep in teens is drowsy driving. Fall-asleep crashes tend to be severe, and, of these, 55% have been found to occur in individuals who are 25 years or younger. 7 For the years 2007 and 2008, individuals aged 16-20 years had the highest injury rate from motor vehicle crashes. 8 While individuals aged 15 to 20 years represented only 9% of the U.S. population and 6% of licensed drivers for 2007, 19% of all fatalities in the United States were related to young-driver crashes. 9 Early high school start times could contribute to insufficient sleep in teenagers 10 and increased motor vehicle crashes. One study found start time to be the main determinant of wake times in adolescents. 11 A recent study revealed that a 30-min delay in high school start time was associated with 45 min of additional sleep on weekday nights and reduced sleepiness. 12 Thus, later high school start times could result in more sleep and better synchronicity with the circadian phase delay found in teens. 3 Unfortunately, the relationship of high school start times to crash rates has rarely been investigated. One recent study by Danner and Phillips did demonstrate that delaying high school start times reduced vehicle crashes in teens. In Lexington Kentucky, a 1-h delay in high school start times was associated with a 16.5% decline in teen crashes in the ensuing 2 years. 13 Adjacent and demographically similar cities in Southeastern Virginia, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake offer a propitious opportunity to compare further school start times and teen crashes. These adjoining cities have markedly different public high school start times. Virginia Beach begins public high school Study Objectives: Early high school start times may contribute to insufficient sleep leading to increased teen crash rate. Virginia Beach (VB) and Chesapeake are adjacent, demographically similar cities. VB high schools start 75-80 minutes earlier than Chesapeake's. We hypothesized that VB teens would manifest a higher crash rate than Chesapeake teens. Methods: The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) provided de-identified, aggregate 2008 and 2007 data for weekday crashes and crash times in VB and Chesapeake for drivers aged 16-18 years ("teens"), and provided 2008 and 2007 crash data for all drivers. Data allowed comparisons of VB versus Chesapeake crash rates for teens (overall and hour-by-hour), and teens versus all other ages. We compared AM and PM traffic congestion (peak hours) in the two cities.

SUMMARYBackground: Studies suggest obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) frequently manifests in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and that there may be a causal relationship. Aim: To determine the relationship between OSAS and symptoms of GERD. Methods: Consecutive patients referred to the Sleep Disorders Center (SDC) 18 years and older with polysomnographically defined OSAS were evaluated prospectively for GERD using a validated symptoms questionnaire. The GERD and OSAS relationship was assessed by 1) determining frequency of GERD in patients with and without OSAS; 2) ascertaining the relationship between