Sufficient and quality sleep is essential to prevent many serious diseases. Specialists recommend that we sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night from the age of 18 until the age of 65. In the case of teenagers, younger children or infants, the number of hours of sleep should be even higher. For example, in the case of newborns, the duration of sleep must be 14-17 hours a day, while in school and preschool children, this is 9-13 hours, and in adolescents aged between 14 and 17 the duration sleep is 8-10 hours.
If we don’t rest enough, immunity suffers, the risk of respiratory problems increases, we can gain weight due to hormonal imbalances, and this phenomenon further increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and autoimmune diseases.
A recent study by Swedish researchers published in Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry shows that teenagers who sleep less than 7 hours a night have a 40% higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis in adulthood, a serious autoimmune disease that does not yet have a complete cure.
Among the symptoms of multiple sclerosis we mention:
- Fatigue
- Vision problems
- Numbness and tingling
- Muscle spasms, stiffness and weakness
- Mobility problems, chronic pain
- Problems with thinking, learning and planning
- Depression and anxiety
- Sexual problems
- Bladder problems
- Intestinal problems
- Difficulty speaking and swallowing
The causes of multiple sclerosis are not fully known. Genetic and environmental factors (pollution, reduced exposure to the sun), active or passive smoking, but also certain infections (Epstein Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, varicella-zoster virus, clostridium perfringens type B, measles virus, endogenous retroviruses) are possible causes. associated with this serious condition.
According to experts, another contributing factor could be the fact that we don’t get enough sleep in our teens.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet analyzed the sleep patterns of more than 5,000 adults during their teenage years. Thus, they found that people who slept less than 7 hours a night during adolescence had a 40 or even 50% higher risk of later developing multiple sclerosis.
The explanation could lie in the fact that sleep deprivation leads to disruption of immunity, a factor recognized as having a major influence in the development of autoimmune diseases.
