engleski

Difference between going to bed and deciding to go to sleep: what can it tell us about adolescents’ activities in bed

Various electronic devices are commonly present in adolescents’ bedrooms. In such living circumstances going to bed may not necessarily reflect wish to initiate sleep. In order to evaluate sleep patterns of adolescents living in such circumstances we constructed a sleep diary paying special attention to sleep onset behaviours, which included questions on time of going to bed, time of decision to go to sleep, time of falling asleep, as well as various activities performed in bed. A group of 16-year old secondary school students (n597)participated in the study. They kept sleep-wake diaries at bedtime and upon awaking for 14 consecutive days, one week when attending school in the morning and the other in the afternoon shift. The percentage of adolescents who performed some activity after going to bed ranged between 37% and 59% on different days. The most common activity in bed was watching TV. The group of adolescents who performed some activity in bed went to bed earlier than the group who went to bed only to sleep, on six days out of 14. However, performing activity in bed on those days did not affect their sleep time. On three days when both groups of adolescents went to bed at the same time, the adolescents performing some activity in bed subsequently decided to go to sleep and fell asleep later than adolescents going to bed only to sleep. Nevertheless, it did not affect their sleep time either. If difference is made between time of going to bed and time of decision to go to sleep, adolescents’ activities in bed are related to advanced bedtime on some days and delayed decision to go to sleep on other, with no consequent impact on sleep time.

adolescents; activities in bed; intention to sleep; sleep duration; sleep onset; TV

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