今天昏昏欲睡的青少年，明天就可能是心脏病患者

Most kids don’t get enough sleep, and that may put them on a path to future heart trouble, a new study finds.

一项新的研究发现，大多数孩子睡眠不足，这可能会导致他们未来罹患心脏病。

Young teens who slept less than seven hours a night tended to have more body fat, elevated blood pressure and less healthy cholesterol levels -- all bad for the heart, researchers say.

研究人员称，每晚睡眠少于7小时的青少年身体脂肪多，血压高，胆固醇水平低——这些都对心脏有害。

Heart disease remains a leading killer, said lead researcher Elizabeth Cespedes Feliciano. She’s a staff scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

心脏病仍然是头号杀手，首席研究员伊丽莎白·塞斯佩德斯·费利西亚诺说。她是加州奥克兰凯泽永久北加州研究部的科学工作人员。

"We really want our youth to be on a healthy trajectory," Feliciano said, "and it’s a little alarming you would see adverse cardiometabolic profiles emerging even at an age as young as 13."

“我们真的希望我们的年轻人走上健康的轨道，”费利西亚诺说，“令人有点担忧的是，有害的心脏代谢曲线竟能早到13岁时就出现。”

But it seems that very few kids are getting the kind of nightly slumber that would protect their future heart health.

但似乎很少有孩子能得到那种能保障他们未来健康的夜间睡眠。

Average sleep duration for kids in the study was only a little over seven hours per day, researchers found.

研究人员发现，这项研究中的孩子平均每天睡眠时间只有7小时多一点。

In fact, only 2.2 percent of the kids met or exceeded the average recommended sleep duration for their age group -- nine hours per day for kids 11 to 13 and eight hours per day for teens 14 to 17.

事实上，只有2.2 %的孩子达到或超过了他们年龄组的平均推荐睡眠时间，11到13岁的孩子每天9小时，14到17岁的孩子每天8小时。

Further, nearly a third of kids slept less than seven hours.

此外，近三分之一的孩子睡眠不足七小时。

"I was really struck by how little these adolescents are sleeping," said Dr. Andrew Varga, a sleep medicine specialist with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. "It’s not totally surprising, given what I know about kids and their habits, but you would think there would be some drive for these kids to sleep more because they have a high sleep need."

纽约西奈山伊坎医学院的睡眠医学专家安德鲁·瓦尔加博士说:“我真的被这些青少年睡眠的太少所震撼。”“考虑到我对孩子和他们习惯的了解，这并不完全令人惊讶，但你会认为这些孩子会有更多的动力去睡觉，因为他们有很高的睡眠需求。”

Prior studies have shown that inadequate sleep boosts the odds for obesity. But Feliciano’s team wanted to see whether a lack of sleep also affects other heart disease factors for kids.

先前的研究显示，睡眠不足会增加肥胖的几率。但是费利西亚诺的研究小组想知道睡眠不足是否也会影响其他儿童心脏病的因素。

So, they turned to 829 teenagers participating in Project Viva, a long-term study that recruited pregnant moms and has tracked them and their children for nearly 14 years.

因此，他们求助于829名青少年，他们参与了Viva项目，这是一项长期研究，它招募的是怀孕的母亲，并跟踪他们和孩子近14年。

At an average age of 13, the kids were asked to put on a wrist-worn movement sensor at bedtime that would track both their duration of sleep and whether they had restless sleep, Feliciano said.

费利西亚诺说，这些孩子平均13岁时，他们被要求在睡觉前戴上手腕上的运动传感器，跟踪他们的睡眠时间和他们是否睡得不安稳。

The kids wore the sensors of seven to 10 days. They also underwent a series of screenings for heart health risk factors.

孩子们戴了7到10天的传感器。他们还接受了一系列心脏健康危险因素的筛查。

Teens with shorter sleep duration and more restless sleep wound up having the least healthy profiles. They had wider waist circumference, increased body fat, higher blood pressure, and lower levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.

睡眠时间较短和睡眠不安的青少年健康状况最差。他们腰围变宽，体脂增加，血压升高，高密度脂蛋白胆固醇水平降低。

Although cause-and-effect couldn’t be shown in this study, Feliciano believes the lack of good sleep did help trigger these risk factors, given prior research.

尽管因果关系不能在这一缺陷中表现出来，费利西亚诺相信，根据先前的研究，缺乏良好的睡眠确实有助于触发这些危险因素。

"We know from short-term experimental studies that when you deprive someone of sleep or interrupt their sleep, that has effects on some of the same cardiometabolic risk factors examined in this study," she said.

她说:“我们从短期的实验研究中知道，当你剥夺一个人的睡眠或打断他的睡眠时，会对本研究中研究的一些同样的心脏代谢危险因素产生影响。”。

There are a number of ways sleep can affect heart health, Feliciano said.

费利西亚诺说，睡眠可以从许多方面影响心脏健康。

Sleeplessness can spur changes in appetite, and also has been linked to decreased levels of physical activity. "You’re awake longer, but you’re often fatigued so you might not be engaging in sports or exercise," Feliciano said.

失眠可以刺激食欲的变化，也与体力活动的减少有关。费利西亚诺说:“你醒得更久了，但是你经常疲劳，所以你可能不会参加运动或锻炼。”。

Sleep also is important in the regulation of blood pressure and blood sugar, Varga said.

瓦尔加说，睡眠在调节血压和血糖方面也很重要。

"It’s known that sleep is really helpful for lowering blood pressure," Varga said. "There are natural dips in blood pressure that occur throughout the night. When you’re sleeping less, that happens less and offers less blood pressure control."

“众所周知，睡眠确实有助于降低血压。整个晚上血压都会自然下降。睡眠越少，下降的越少，血压控制就越少。”瓦尔加表示。

So what’s keeping kids up at night?

那么是什么导致孩子们晚上熬夜？

Feliciano believes screen time is probably causing most of the sleep deprivation.

费利西亚诺认为，大部分睡眠剥夺可能是由于沉迷于屏幕造成的。

"Television viewing is still the dominant way these children are consuming media, but small screens are a concern as well, because you can bring those right into your bedroom," Feliciano said. "I do think screen media is a culprit for short and disrupted sleep, especially in this population that’s very plugged in."

费利西亚诺说:“看电视仍然是这些孩子消费媒体的主要方式，但小屏幕也是一个问题，因为你可以把它们带到你的卧室里。”“我确实认为，屏幕媒体是导致睡眠不足和中断的罪魁祸首，尤其是在这个人口密集的地区。”

There’s also a general lack of awareness among parents regarding the sleep needs of teenagers, Varga said.

瓦尔加说，还有一个方面是父母对青少年的睡眠需求普遍缺乏认识。

"There’s an impression that as kids become teenagers, we think of them as small adults who don’t need as much sleep as younger children," Varga said. "That’s totally not true. Even up to the early 20s, sleep needs are higher than that of a mature adult."

“有一种印象，当孩子变成青少年时，我们认为他们是小大人，不需要像小孩子那样多的睡眠。”“那完全不对。即使到了20岁出头，睡眠需求也高于成年人。”

Parents need to put their foot down when it comes to screen time at bedtime, Feliciano said.

费利西亚诺说，父母需要对睡前的沉迷屏幕现象采取坚定措施。

"I would recommend the bedroom be a screen-free zone," she said. "I think that would improve sleep duration and quality in adolescents."

“我建议不要将屏幕带到卧室里来，”她说，“我认为这会改善青少年的睡眠时间和睡眠质量。”

The study was published June 15 in the journal Pediatrics.

这项研究发表在6月15日的儿科杂志上。