Introduction. Sleep represents an essential element for the pubertal development of adolescents. For optimal health, the recommended sleep duration is 8-10 hours per day for those aged 13-18 years old.
The objective of the study was to investigate the sleep behaviours, differentiated by gender and place of origin (rural/urban).
Materials and methods. The study group involved 521 subjects aged between 15 to 19 years old from the South (Olt) and North (Suceava) regions of Romania. Data was collected in April-May 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic period. An anthropological questionnaire was used to collect data online (Google Drive), investigating various areas regarding adolescent behaviour, including aspects of sleep. Data processing was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Results. The average sleep duration of adolescents is below the recommended minimum for their developmental stage (7.79 hours for boys, 7.64 hours for girls) with a slight compensation over the weekends (8.5 hours for boys, 8.7 hours for girls).
Conclusions. Although the average is close to the recommended sleep duration, over 45% of subjects have a sleep deficiency. We also found that there were no gender, environmental, or geographic differences in terms of sleep duration behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords: sleep, development, adolescence, puberty, health.
Full text sources https://doi.org/10.31688/ABMU.2024.59.1.04
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Address for correspondence:
Andrei KOZMA
“Alessandrescu-Rusescu” National Institute for Mother and Child Health Research department in Social Pediatrics and Obstetrics, Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: dr.ka.mailbox@gmail.com
