Teenage girls struggle to stay alert at school
31/10/2011
Teenage girls need to spend longer on their mattresses if they are to stay alert at school, research has suggested.
Figures from the Schools Health Education Unit show 48 per cent of 14 and 15-year-old girls do not get enough shut-eye to be effective at learning in the classroom.
This drops to 41 per cent among boys of the same age group.
Data shows that the proportion of youngsters getting eight hours of sleep per night or more drops with age, with four-fifths of 12 to 13-year-olds getting this amount of rest.
This compares to 61 per cent of 14 to 15-year-old girls and 66 per cent of their male counterparts.
Cathy Ranson, editor-in-chief of parenting website Netmums.com, said: "The findings … make interesting reading for parents, particularly the fact that a very large proportion of young people admit to not getting enough sleep for them to stay alert and concentrate at school."
Posted by Michael Ewing
