Get them some sleep, scientists say of young delinquents

The study re-examined 15-year-old da ta from the Na­tional Lon gi tu di nal Study of Ad o les cent Health, a fed­er ally funded pro ject that sur veyed ad o les cent health in the Un ited States in rela t ion to a va ri e ty of risky be hav iors.

The sur vey sam ple used for the study on sleep and de lin quen cy en com passed 14,382 high school stu­dents—half ma le, half fema le, 63.5 pe r cent white.

Stu dents who slept sev en or few er hours nightly re­ported “sig nif i cantly more prop er ty de lin quen cy,” such as van dal ism or theft, than stu dents who slept the rec om mended eight to 10 hours, the au thors of the new study re ported. The findings ap pear in the Oct. 10 is sue of the Jour nal of Youth and Ad o les cence.

Those who slept five or few er hours per night, meanwhile, “re ported sig nif i cantly more vi o lent de lin quen cy,” wrote the re search ers, Sa man tha Clink in beard and col leagues at the Uni vers ity of Ne bras ka at Oma ha.

“Lack of sleep has been linked to a wide range of neg a tive de vel op men tal out comes,” but “largely over looked among re search ers in ter est ed in ad o les cent de lin quen cy,” the group wrote.

Al though the study could n’t demonstrate that in suffi cient snooz ing caused de lin quen cy rath er than, for ex am ple, the oth er way around, “the find ings sug gest that sleep is an im por tant, and over looked, di men sion of de lin quent be hav ior,” the re search ers wrote. They ar gued that this as pect de serves fur ther in ves ti ga t ion.

The study did n’t de ter mine wheth er in som nia, home en vi ron ment or oth er fac tors caused the sleep short age pos sibly linked to de lin quen cy. But a smaller stu dy, pub­lished in last De cem ber’s is sue of the Jour nal of Ge net ic Psy chol o gy, found that “pos­sible in som ni a” pre dicted smok ing, de lin quen cy and drinking-and-driving among high school ers.

“Sleep and oth er rel e vant health be hav iors [should] be con sid ered in the con text of more com pre hen sive ap proaches to de lin quen cy pre ven tion and in ter ven tion,” Clink in­beard and col leagues wrote.