PROVO -- It is no secret that the amount of sleep people get can directly impact their performance at work or school the next day, but according to a new study done at BYU, national guidelines for the amount of sleep teenagers need may be wrong.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers need nine hours and 15 minutes of sleep each night in order to function at their highest level. A study done by economics professors Eric Eide and Mark Showalter shows that teens actually perform best when they get about seven hours of sleep.
"The numbers were coming in quite a bit lower than the national recommendations," Eide said. "As we tried to sort out why this might be we found the idea of sleep recommendations is something that doesn't have a lot of empirical support behind it."
The data for the study came from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a national study that has been ongoing since 1968 and looks at the socioeconomics and health of more than 5,000 families. The study includes data on the amount of sleep family members get and performance on standardizing testing, which Eide and Showalter used for their study.
They say the data shows that teens' performance varies only slightly when they sleep between seven and nine hours each night.
"The broad takeaway is that within the range of sleep between seven and nine hours there is not a big difference in performance," Showalter said. "But the medical literature was very specific in saying that 9.25 hours is the optimal amount, but we found that with respect to educational achievement there is a bigger range that is acceptable."
The study shows the negative effects on test scores aren't seen unless teens are consistently getting six hours of sleep or less a night. Showalter says getting too much sleep can be just as detrimental though.
"Getting 10 hours of sleep has the same impact as only getting six and getting 11 hours has the effect as only getting five hours of sleep each night," Showalter said. "What we are showing is there is this range that is accepted. If your kid is considerably above or below the range we would suggest some changes."
The duo plans on continuing their research to see how the sleep patterns of different races are impacting school performances.
"One of the things we have seen in national samples is that there are some pretty striking differences in the amount of sleep white kids get compared to other races," Eide said. "White kids tend to get more sleep than other races, which could explain educational achievements and why we see differences between races."
Eide says that research is still in its preliminary stages and no conclusions have been reached yet.
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