According to a study, gay teenagers are more than twice as likely to have sleep problems as their straight peers.
Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco surveyed 8,500 young people – including 374 gay teenagers – about their sleep patterns.
About 35 percent of people in the LGBT group had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep in the past two weeks.
But among young people who said they were straight, only 13.5 percent reported the same problems.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, said LGBT youth have more sleep disturbances than their peers
The researchers note that discrimination, bullying and conflict at home keep LGBT youth up at night.
Adolescence is a difficult time to sleep because the body’s circadian rhythm – or body clock – goes back several hours.
Scientists say this is probably done to help teenagers learn independence by staying awake while their parents sleep.
But in today’s modern world of early school days and demanding homework schedules, ministry ends up disrupting young people’s sleep.
Teenagers need about eight to 10 hours of sleep a night — up to three hours more than adults — and nearly three out of four don’t get it consistently.
Too much sleep is linked to twice the risk of stroke
Participants who slept more than nine hours a night were twice as likely to have a stroke as those who got the usual seven hours.
Previous research has pointed to sleep problems among sexual minorities.
But scientists believe that her work is the first to identify her among LGBT youth.
In the study, published in the journal LGBT Health, researchers used research data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD study).
This study used advanced brain imaging to track brain growth in adolescents in 21 US locations from 2018 to 2020. It also included survey data from parents and their children on other lifestyle factors, such as sleep and sexuality.
The researchers looked at data from 8,500 young people between the ages of 10 and 14.
A total of 7,484 said they were straight, another 376 said they were gay and 325 said they might be gay.
The results showed that a total of 15 percent of the participants – or one in six – reported having trouble sleeping.
Analysis showed that LGBT youth were 124 percent more likely to struggle with sleep problems than straight youth.
The researchers called for more interventions to help LGBT youth, including promoting acceptance in families and schools.
They concluded: “Taken together, our results suggest that sexual minority status may be associated with sleep problems in early adolescence.
“Depressive issues, stress, less parental supervision, and more family conflict partially mediate disparities in sleep health among sexual minority adolescents.
“Interventions to promote family and caregiver acceptance and mental health support for minority youth may have the potential to improve their sleep and other health outcomes.”
The limitations of the study include that it relied on self-reported sleep patterns which may be subject to memory bias.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
