Original ArticleSleep duration in Chinese adolescents: biological, environmental, and behavioral predictors

- The prevalence of sleep duration less than 8.0 h in weekdays reached up to 51.0% among Chinese adolescents.
- Factors related to sleep duration less than 8.0 h covered five domains: biological and psychosocial condition, sleep environments, school schedules, daily activity and behavior, and parents' sleep habits.
- Compared to sleep environment, physical and psychosocial fitness are more important.
- We emphasize the impact of daily behaviors and school schedule on sleep duration.
- The existing chronic sleep loss in adolescents could be, at least partly, intervened.

ObjectiveTo examine sleep duration-related risk factors from multidimensional domains among Chinese adolescents.MethodsA random sample of 4801 adolescents aged 11-20 years participated in a cross-sectional survey. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect information about the adolescents' sleep behaviors and possible related factors from eight domains.ResultsIn all, 51.0% and 9.8% of adolescents did not achieve optimal sleep duration (defined as <8.0 h per day) on weekdays and on weekends, respectively. According to multivariate logistic regression models, after adjusting for all possible confounders, 17 factors were associated with sleep duration <8 h. Specifically, 13 factors from five domains were linked to physical and psychosocial condition, environment, and behaviors. These factors were overweight/obesity, chronic pain, bedtime anxiety/excitement/depression, bed/room sharing, school starting time earlier than 07:00, cram school learning, more time spent on homework on weekdays, television viewing ≥2 h/day, physical activity <1 h/day, irregular bedtime, and shorter sleep duration of father.ConclusionBiological and psychosocial conditions, sleep environments, school schedules, daily activity and behaviors, and parents' sleep habits significantly may affect adolescents' sleep duration, indicating that the existing chronic sleep loss in adolescents could be, at least partly, intervened by improving adolescents' physical and psychosocial conditions, controlling visual screen exposure, regulating school schedules, improving sleep hygiene and daytime behaviors, and changing parents' sleep habits.