SLEEP PATTERNS AND DAYTIME FUNCTIONS IN ADOLESCENCE. AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ITALIAN HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENT POPULATION

This study reports sleep habits and problems of 6632 (2645 males, 3987 females) aged 13,8-20,2 yrs, representative of Italian High school population. A sleep onset insomnia was found in 21% , multiple night wakings in 11.5% of females and 8.% of males and prolonged nightwaking, lasting more than 30 minutes was reported in 7% of females and 4.4% of males A tendency to increase with age was found in both sexes only regarding long nightwakings, while multiple nightwakings remained stable in all age groups. Early awakenings were found in 23% of students, they were significantly more frequent in girls than in boys (25% girls vs 21% boys) Of the whole sample 19.6% considered themselves as poor sleepers. Significantly more girls than boys (21% vs 17%) reported poor sleep quality. Self-perception of poor sleep tended significantly to increase with age in both sexes .