Sleep in adolescence: sex matters?
Abstract
Objective: Sleep is of upmost importance for everybody and especially for adolescents who face life and leisure challenges that may impair their sleep. This study aimed to verify if girls are at a higher risk to present sleep problems and if associations of a sleep perception are different between sexes even when accounting for biological maturation. Methods: Data is from the HBSC Portuguese survey 2014, all variables were self-reported. Participants were 3869 adolescents (2057 girls), mean age 14.8 years. Participants' socio-demographic characteristics included sex, age, school grade, father and mother education; besides participants were inquired about sleep duration and characteristics of their sleep quality. Results: Sleep deprivation was reported by 13.1% of the adolescents (girls 14.3%, boys 11.7%, p<0.05). The most prevalent characteristics of poor sleep quality were waking up tired (50.8%) and difficulties falling asleep (19.5%), for both girls presented higher prevalence than boys. Overall, girls presented a poorer sleep health with low quality and quantity of sleep. Furthermore, associations of an enough and good sleep were different between boys and girls, even when controlling for the impact of delayed pubertal maturity. Discussion: Together with screen time, substance use, poorer nutrition, sedentary behaviours and abuse of screen time, sleep is an issue that must be addressed by professionals, families and public policies with impact in family life and family routines. Modelling a health education in schools should include the sleep topic. In addition, yes, sex matters and must be included on board.
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BibTeX
@article{matos2026sleep,
title = {{Sleep in adolescence: sex matters?}},
author = {Margarida Gaspar de Matos and Adilson Marques and Miguel Peralta and Tânia Gaspar and Celeste Simões and Helena Rebelo Pinto and Pinto Teresa Rebelo and Emmanuelle Godeau and Teresa Paiva},
journal = {Sleep Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5935/1984-0063.20190075},
url = {https://ehesp.hal.science/hal-02464526v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sleep in adolescence: sex matters?
AU - Margarida Gaspar de Matos
AU - Adilson Marques
AU - Miguel Peralta
AU - Tânia Gaspar
AU - Celeste Simões
AU - Helena Rebelo Pinto
AU - Pinto Teresa Rebelo
AU - Emmanuelle Godeau
AU - Teresa Paiva
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Sleep Science
DO - 10.5935/1984-0063.20190075
UR - https://ehesp.hal.science/hal-02464526v1
AB - Objective: Sleep is of upmost importance for everybody and especially for adolescents who face life and leisure challenges that may impair their sleep. This study aimed to verify if girls are at a higher risk to present sleep problems and if associations of a sleep perception are different between sexes even when accounting for biological maturation. Methods: Data is from the HBSC Portuguese survey 2014, all variables were self-reported. Participants were 3869 adolescents (2057 girls), mean age 14.8 years. Participants' socio-demographic characteristics included sex, age, school grade, father and mother education; besides participants were inquired about sleep duration and characteristics of their sleep quality. Results: Sleep deprivation was reported by 13.1% of the adolescents (girls 14.3%, boys 11.7%, p<0.05). The most prevalent characteristics of poor sleep quality were waking up tired (50.8%) and difficulties falling asleep (19.5%), for both girls presented higher prevalence than boys. Overall, girls presented a poorer sleep health with low quality and quantity of sleep. Furthermore, associations of an enough and good sleep were different between boys and girls, even when controlling for the impact of delayed pubertal maturity. Discussion: Together with screen time, substance use, poorer nutrition, sedentary behaviours and abuse of screen time, sleep is an issue that must be addressed by professionals, families and public policies with impact in family life and family routines. Modelling a health education in schools should include the sleep topic. In addition, yes, sex matters and must be included on board.
SN - 1984-0659
ER -