It has been suggested in new research that teenagers have a greater chance of gaining weight if they do not get enough sleep every night. As well as recording the sleep patterns of 255 teenagers, experts at the Baylor College of Medicine Sleep Centre in Houston, also recorded their height and weight. The findings show that the Body Mass Index (BMI) of male teenagers sleeping for less than seven hours each weekday night was 3.8 per cent higher than teenagers who slept for longer. This trend is also shown in female teenagers, except that those who had less sleep had a BMI 4.7 percent higher. The author of the study, Lata Casturi, said that sleep 'feeds' the brain. When teenagers don’t sleep for long enough, they have problems concentrating, fall asleep at school, have more problems with sickness and due to their tiredness are unable to meet their obligations. The University of Granada and Junta de Andalucia in Spain has issued results from a separate piece of research that finds teenagers are likely to have better maths tests results at school if they get more sleep.
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