Most teens lacking enough shut-eye

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON — America is raising a nation of sleep-deprived kids, with only 20 percent getting the recommended nine hours of shut-eye on school nights and more than one in four reporting dozing off in class.
Many are arriving late to school because of oversleeping and others are driving drowsy, according to a poll released today by the National Sleep Foundation.
"In the competition between the natural tendency to stay up late and early school start times, a teen's sleep is what loses out," said Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Nearly all the youngsters — 97 percent — had at least one electronic device in their bedroom. These include televisions, computers, phones or music devices. Adolescents with four or more such devices in their bedrooms are much more likely than their peers to get insufficient sleep, the foundation reported.
"Those with four or more electronic devices in their bedroom were twice as likely to fall asleep in school," Mindell said.
"Sending students to school without enough sleep is like sending them to school without breakfast. Sleep serves not only a restorative function for adolescents' bodies and brains, but it is also a key time when they process what they've learned during the day," she said.
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