It began in 1989 when 2,900 pregnant women first volunteered to be part of the study and extensive data was collected during pregnancy and at the birth of their children. The 1,234 participants in the study come from the Western Australian Raine Study, the oldest pre-birth longitudinal study in the world. "Young adults, therefore, may be particularly vulnerable to experiencing poor sleep that persists into adulthood and, as a result, are a priority population for primary and secondary prevention efforts to promote sleep health and reduce the risk of various chronic diseases," the report said. This was particularly important in young adulthood, which the study said was a "critical phase for the development of a healthy lifestyle and habits, which often continue into adulthood". The study acknowledges sleep disorders, such as insomnia or sleep apnoea, are well associated with significant health impacts.īut it said poor sleep, due to not enough, too much, irregular or unsatisfactory sleep was also a risk factor "for conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression and poorer mental and physical health generally". "And really interestingly, we found it was that young adults' satisfaction with their sleep and reports on how alert they were feeling during the day that were most strongly associated with those outcomes." Young adults 'particularly vulnerable' "We wanted to see which of these dimensions were most strongly associated with the physical and mental health outcomes that we considered," Dr Metse said. Of the 1,234 people who took part in the research, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health on Tuesday, 60 per cent said their sleep was constantly changing and irregular.Ĭalled "Sleep health of young adults in Western Australia and associations with physical and mental health", the study also found 30 per cent of the participants slept less than the optimal seven to nine hours a night, 18 per cent took more than 30 minutes to fall asleep and 60 per cent did not have regular sleep hours.Ĭlinical psychologist and lead researcher Dr Alex Metse, from the University of the Sunshine Coast, said 10 per cent also reported their bad night's sleep noticeably impacted how alert they felt during the day. It is the first study to examine the sleep health of young Australian adults, using both a questionnaire and an analysis of their sleeping habits.
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