Obese Teens Who Don't Get Enough Sleep Risk Heart Attacks

Overweight teens who don't sleep enough are risking having a heart attack, according to a new study.

The study, published in The Journal of Pediatrics, has tied lack of sleep in obese teens to a greater chance of diabetes, heart attack, and stroke, compared to obesity alone.

Obesity has long been tied to massively increased risks of diabetes, heart attack, and stroke. Interestingly, lack of sleep has also been found as a minor contributor to these three conditions in children and adults, but adolescents have been tricky. According to a press release that accompanied the study's publication, tying sleep deprivation to cardiac complications and diabetes in adolescents has been remarkably difficult for scientists because of the irregular sleep patterns of the average teenager.

However, the research team of this most recent study claims to have solved the riddle using a constructed model of sleep patterns specific to the average obese adolescent.

Researcher fitted 37 obese adolescents with physical activity monitors to measure their typical patterns of sleep and physical activity. After the participants wore their monitors for 24 hours a day for seven days, the researchers found that only five of the participants slept for 8.5 hours each night, the minimal around of sleep required daily. The rest slept for an average of 7 hours a night, with their sleep interrupted at least once. The teens were then examined for risk factors that could contribute to complications such as heart attack, type two diabetes, or stoke.

Even after the researchers considered the controlling factors for their analysis from the constructed sleep model, they found that obese teens still face a significantly raised chance of having cardio-metabolic disease and complications.

It should be noted that while the study highlights a relationship between lack of sleep and dangerous conditions in obese teens, it does not account-for or explain cause.

According to a press release published on March 6, the details of this study are expected to be released to the public in The Journal of Pediatrics shortly.