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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci 2019; 12(03): 138-146
DOI: 10.5935/1984-0063.20190075
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Sleep in adolescence: sex matters?

Margarida Gaspar de Matos
1   University of Lisbon, Faculty of Human Kinetics - Cruz Quebrada - Lisbon - Portugal.
2   Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, ISAMB - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
,
Adilson Marques
2   Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, ISAMB - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
3   University of Lisbon, CIPER, Faculty of Human Kinetics - Cruz Quebrada - Lisbon - Portugal.
,
Miguel Peralta
3   University of Lisbon, CIPER, Faculty of Human Kinetics - Cruz Quebrada - Lisbon - Portugal.
,
Tânia Gaspar
2   Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, ISAMB - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
4   Lusíada University of Lisbon, Lusíada University of Lisbon - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
,
Celeste Simões
1   University of Lisbon, Faculty of Human Kinetics - Cruz Quebrada - Lisbon - Portugal.
2   Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, ISAMB - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
,
Helena Rebelo Pinto
5   Sleep Medicine Center, CENC - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
6   Sleep Medicine Center, CENC - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
,
Teresa Rebelo Pinto
5   Sleep Medicine Center, CENC - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
,
Emmanuelle Godeau
7   French School of Public Health, EHESP - Rennes - Brittany - France.
8   UMR 1027, ISERM - Toulouse - Occitanie - France.
,
Teresa Paiva
5   Sleep Medicine Center, CENC - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal.
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Objective Sleep is of upmost importance for everybody and especially for adolescents who face life and leisure challenges that may impair their sleep. This study aimed to verify if girls are at a higher risk to present sleep problems and if associations of a sleep perception are different between sexes even when accounting for biological maturation.

Methods Data is from the HBSC Portuguese survey 2014, all variables were self-reported. Participants were 3869 adolescents (2057 girls), mean age 14.8 years. Participants' socio-demographic characteristics included sex, age, school grade, father and mother education; besides participants were inquired about sleep duration and characteristics of their sleep quality.

Results Sleep deprivation was reported by 13.1% of the adolescents (girls 14.3%, boys 11.7%, p<0.05). The most prevalent characteristics of poor sleep quality were waking up tired (50.8%) and difficulties falling asleep (19.5%), for both girls presented higher prevalence than boys. Overall, girls presented a poorer sleep health with low quality and quantity of sleep. Furthermore, associations of an enough and good sleep were different between boys and girls, even when controlling for the impact of delayed pubertal maturity.

Discussion Together with screen time, substance use, poorer nutrition, sedentary behaviours and abuse of screen time, sleep is an issue that must be addressed by professionals, families and public policies with impact in family life and family routines. Modelling a health education in schools should include the sleep topic. In addition, yes, sex matters and must be included on board.

sleep deprivation - sleep quality - adolescent - gender and health - health behaviour


Publication History

Received: 25 September 2018

Accepted: 30 May 2019

Article published online:
31 October 2023

© 2023. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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