CDC report finds that lack of sleep among high school students leads to unsafe behavior

High school students in the United States who don’t get a good night’s sleep are more inclined to engage in risky behaviors than those who receive sufficient sleep, according to a new report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC analyzed data from the National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys of more than 50,000 students in grades 9 through 12 and those who found that slept seven hours or fewer on school nights were more likely to participate in five dangerous activities compared with students who sleep nine hours. According to the report, 86.1% of all students surveyed don’t use bicycle helmets frequently, 30.3% text while driving, 26% recently rode in a car with a driver who had been drinking, 8.9% drove after drinking and 8.7% don’t use seatbelts frequently.

“Although insufficient sleep contributes to injury risk directly by slowing reaction time, impairing ability to pay attention or causing a driver to fall asleep, this study provides evidence that some of the increased risk associated with insufficient sleep might be caused by engaging in injury-related risk behaviors,” authors of the report said.

Researchers also found that about 69% of teens sleep seven hours or fewer. Females are more sleep deprived than males (71% than 66%), seniors are more likely to skimp on sleep than first-year students (77% than 60%) and Asian teens are the most sleep-deprived demographic (76%).