A RECENT study has found that insufficient and disturbed sleep during the teenage years may heighten the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Genetic and environmental factors such as smoking, Epstein-Barr infection, sun exposure and shift work can influence MS. However, whether sleep patterns affect this risk hasn’t been fully assessed yet.
In response, researchers drew on the Epidemiological Investigation of Multiple Sclerosis (EIMS), a population-based case-control study that compromised Swedish residents aged 16-70.
People with MS were recruited and matched for age, sex, and residential area with two healthy people randomly selected from the national population register between 2005 and 2013, and 2015 and 2018.
Researchers focused on sleep patterns during the ages 15-19, analysing 2,075 people with MS and 3,164 without.
Compared with sleeping 7-9 hours per night, sleep under 7 hours was associated with a 40% heightened risk of developing MS. Subjective assessment of poor sleep quality during this was associated with a 50% risk increase.
The researchers caution that their findings should be interpreted cautiously on account of potential reverse causation – whereby poor sleep could be a consequence of neurological damage rather than the other way round – but stress that poor quality or too little sleeps can compromise immune systems.
Insufficient and disturbed sleep is common among teens, often caused by physiological, psychological, and social changes during this age period.
“Availability of technology and internet access at any time contributes to insufficient sleep among adolescents and represents an important public health issue,” researchers added.
To conclude, researchers stress the importance of educating adolescents and their parents on the negative health consequences of insufficient sleep.