CDC: DeKalb high school kids need more sleep

Going short of sleep is a nationwide problem with serious consequences, and it’s a really bad one among high school kids. According to a survey just released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s especially bad among DeKalb County high school students.

Slightly more than 4 in 5 — 80.4 percent — of DeKalb high school students reported receiving amounts of sleep that are insufficient, according to the study. That’s compared with a national average of 72.7 percent for high-schoolers.

The consequences include all manner of health risks, as well as low performance in school. It's so serious that the CDC recommended in the study that schools move their start times to later so kids can sleep.

“Children and adolescents who do not get the recommended amount of sleep for their age are at increased risk for chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and poor mental health, as well as injuries, attention and behavioral problems, and poor academic performance,” the report said. “In addition, short sleep duration has been found to be associated with engaging in health- and injury-related risk behaviors among high school students.”

There are any number of possible reasons why the county school system might stand out, said Dr. Nancy Collop, a professor at Emory University and the director of the Emory Sleep Center. (She had no praise for the national average itself, which she called “pretty awful.”)

There are the start times, of course. DeKalb has a three-tiered system to make its school bus system more efficient, and the high schools start earlier than the middle schools, at 8:10 a.m.

Comparatively, in Los Angeles, which came in better than average at 69.9 percent, schools can set their own opening times and some start at 8:30 a.m. The California Legislature last year considered a bill to mandate the later start time statewide, but the proposal hasn’t passed.

“There are places where later start times not only improve sleep times but improve grades!” Collop wrote in an email.

Warm weather may be a factor in lost sleep, and kids who tend to be involved in more extracurricular activities may also be vulnerable to the problem.

In addition, Collop said, other factors to look into are whether parents are teaching good sleep habits, whether schools are teaching it effectively in health and science classes, and school culture.

“There is also the concept of ‘sleep machismo,’ ” she said. “Kids feel it is ‘cool’ to be able to function on less sleep.”

Sleep needs

Ages 6-12: 9 hours or more

Ages 13-18: 8 hours or more

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention