Study Finds Teenagers Who Stay Up Late Are Prone To Allergies and Asthma

These days, you would find most teens waking up late in the morning because they slept late. Those who have made this a routine are highly likely to develop asthma and allergies in later life. A study has found that these health problems are linked to the sleep cycle. A disrupted sleep-wake cycle can trigger respiratory illnesses and allergies, especially in teenagers.

The Study

According to a research published in the science journal ERJ Open Research, sleep preferences of a teenager trigger asthma risk in teenagers. Also, the symptoms of asthma are linked to the internal clock of the body. This research shows the importance of sleep timing and sleep cycle in maintaining respiratory health. It is due to the sleeping pattern and sleep hormone melatonin which are found to influence asthma.

Lead researcher of this study Dr. Subhabrata Moitra from Pulmonary Medicine Deptt. At the University of Alberta, Canada said: "Asthma and allergic diseases are common in children and adolescents across the world and the prevalence is increasing. We know some of the reasons for this increase, such as exposure to pollution and tobacco smoke, but we still need to find out more.”

"Sleep and the 'sleep hormone' melatonin are known to influence asthma, so we wanted to see if adolescents' preference for staying up late or going to bed early could be involved in their asthma risk," he added.

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Research

This research was conducted on 1,684 teenagers who were participating in the Prevalence and Risk Factors of Asthma and Allergy-Related Diseases among Adolescents (PERFORMANCE) study. All of them were asked some questions to identify their sleep preferences; any asthma symptoms they are showing along with some other related information. The research team compared the inputs to draw the results. They found that the risk of asthma and allergies is three times more in teens who stay up late.

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Dr. Moitra adds: "Our results suggest there's a link between preferred sleep time, and asthma and allergies in teenagers. We can't be certain that staying up late is causing asthma, but we know that the sleep hormone melatonin is often out of sync in late-sleepers and that could, in turn, be influencing teenager's allergic response. We also know that children and young people are increasingly exposed to the light from the mobile phone, tablets, and other devices, and staying up later at night. It could be that encouraging teenagers to put down their devices and get to bed a little earlier would help decrease the risk of asthma and allergies. That's something that we need to study more."

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