Beautiful sleep is important too!

More and more studies no link Importance of sleep and the duration of sound sleep with health.

In this current world of peer pressure, academic pressure and screen time the peaceful healthy sleep has been affected in young ones. A good sleep is necessary for well-being especially during the growing years of childhood and adolescence. It is also very important in newborn as maximum growth occurs during their sleep periods. Proper physical growth, metabolic growth and cognitive development depends on adequate sleep.¹ Poor quality sleep has also been seen to be associated with obesity and hypertension in adults. American Heart Association (AHA) has recently addressed pediatric hypertension as a significant public health problem. About 11% of boys and 9.6% of girls worldwide are affected by hypertension.

Environmental noise especially at night is known to affect sleep by reducing sleep duration, increasing sleep latency and disrupting the sleep architecture. This fragmented sleep structure can lead to increase in sympathetic nervous system activity and increase stress hormone levels which can lead to hypertension in adults,² however the effect of noise pollution and fragmented sleep in pediatric population needs to further research upon.

A study published recently in journal of American Heart Association revealed that adolescents with healthy sleep habit had remarkedly lower risk of developing hypertension, approximately relative risk reduction of 37% was seen. Several factors were identified that affected the sleep quality like increased screen time before bed, poor sleep environment and irregular sleep schedule. Hence intervention focusing on these factors can improve sleep quality of adolescents.³

The study also investigated the effect of neighbourhood noise on hypertension. The result showed that environmental noise did disrupt quality of sleep but its effect on hypertension was not significant. This could be due to adolescents being more tolerant towards noise induced stress or other factors like indoor air quality or physical activity levels play more influential role on hypertension.⁴ However, inadequate sleep due to environmental noise is a rising concern looking at the current noise pollution in situation in India due to persistent honking, construction work and festivities that hamper sleep of children leading to headaches, irritability and discomfort in them.

Hypertension is a significant cardiovascular risk factor for adolescents, accentuating the significance of early detection and intervention.⁵

To conclude adequate sleep duration of 8-10 hours in a noise free environment is required to lower the incidence of hypertension in adolescents and for proper cognitive and physical growth in children. Also improving sleep quality by reducing screen time before bedtime is must.

References:

1. Hehr A, Huntley ED, Marusak HA. Getting a good Night's sleep: associations between sleep duration and parent‐reported sleep quality on default mode network connectivity in youth. J Adolesc Health. 2023;72:933–942.
   
   
2. Münzel T, Molitor M, Kuntic M, Hahad O, Röösli M, Engelmann N, Basner M, Daiber A, Sørensen M. Transportation noise pollution and cardiovascular health. Circ Res. 2024;134:1113–1135.
   
   
3. Blunden SL, Chapman J, Rigney GA. Are sleep education programs successful? The case for improved and consistent research efforts. Sleep Med Rev. 2012;16(4):355–370.
   
   
4. de Moraes ACF, Fernández‐Alvira JM, Carvalho HB, Meirhaeghe A, Dallongeville J, Kafatos A, Marcos A, Molnar D, Manios Y, Ruiz JR, et al. Physical activity modifies the associations between genetic variants andBlood pressure in European adolescents. J Pediatr. 2013;165:1046–1049. e2
   
   
5. Flynn JT, Kaelber DC, Baker‐Smith CM, Blowey D, Carroll AE, Daniels SR, de Ferranti SD, Dionne JM, Falkner B, Flinn SK, et al. Clinical practice guideline for screening and management of high blood pressure in children and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2017;140:140.