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So you’ve heard your ‘rents talk about blood pressure and hypertension, right? But you never gave it a though because you don’t have to deal with it. Well, new research reported by Science Daily about sleep habits and blood pressure in teens may make ya wanna make sure you hit the sack—stat.
 
The study followed two kinds of sleepers. Teens with low sleep efficiency, aka when you have trouble falling asleep or wake up too early, and kids with high sleep efficiency, those of you who get enough sleep every night.
 
The study found that teens in the 13-16 year old range who have low sleep efficiency may have a higher risk of higher blood pressure, which can lead to cardiovascular disease later in life. Their risk for the disease was increased 3.5 times more than their peers who slept better.
 
Another astounding find from the study? Fourteen percent of the teens already had pre-hypertension or hypertension with blood pressure in the 90th percentile for their height, age and gender. Childhood hypertension can lead to tons of health problems like cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, organ damage, and ventricular hypertrophy later on. Scary, right?
 
Researchers plan to further studies to decide if hypertension prevention in teens should not only include weight management and exercise, but now better sleep habits as well.
 
For now, try to get better zzz’s by exercising (it’ll wear you out), avoiding caffeine at night and turning off all gadgets and winding down before you go to bed. Still can’t crash? Try reading a boring book.

by Jaime Sunday | 2/1/2016