Sleep and school attendance in adolescence: results from a large population-based study
Sammanfattning
Background: The aim of this study was to examine the link between adolescent sleep and non-
attendance in school. Methods: A large population-based study from Norway conducted in 2012, the
youth@hordaland study, surveyed 8,347 adolescents aged 16-19 years (54% girls). Self-reported
sleep measures included bedtime, rise time, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency
(SOL), wake after sleep onset (WASO), insomnia symptoms, tiredness, and sleepiness. School
attendance was obtained from national administrative registries. Results: Most sleep parameters
were associated with increased risk of school non-attendance. After adjusting for gender and
socioeconomic status, short sleep duration and sleep deficiency were the sleep measures with the
highest odds of non-attendance (OR=4.61, CI 95% 3.29-6.46) and (OR=3.26, CI 95% 2.67-3.99),
respectively). Also, large bedtime discrepancies in weekend versus weekdays were associated with
non-attendance (OR=2.43, CI 95% 1.93-2.02), as well as insomnia (OR=2.25, CI % 1.89-2.67) and
daytime tiredness (OR=2.09, CI 95% 1.70-2.57). The associations were somewhat reduced after
additional adjustment for depression, but remained significant in the fully adjusted model.
Conclusion: The demonstrated relationship between sleep problems and school absence suggests
that careful assessment of sleep is warranted when adolescents present with extensive school
absence. Future studies on how the sleep-school absence relationship in adolescence may impact
later work affiliation in adulthood are needed.