Author(s) :

Nuha Maryam, Janet B. Wolfe.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Insufficient sleep is linked to several negative health outcomes including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and impaired cognitive function. As of 2021, approximately 77% of high school students in the US were identified as suffering from sleep deprivation (SD). While the negative impact of shortterm sleep deprivation on risk-taking tendencies in adults has been previously reported, there is a gap in research on how chronic partial sleep deprivation (SD) affects the adolescent population. This study investigated whether self-reported sleep quality is associated with adolescents’ risk-taking behavior. Based on the prior knowledge about the correlation between SD and cognitive ability, we hypothesized that poorer sleep quality would be associated with lower risk-taking behavior due to cognitive fatigue. An ex post facto study was conducted with 61 participants in grades 9–12 at a high school in southeastern Pennsylvania. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), while risk taking and impulsivity were evaluated using the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) and the Delay and Probability Discounting Task (DPD). A statistically significant negative correlation was observed between PSQI scores and BART performance, indicating that worse sleep quality was associated with lower behavioral risk taking. However, no significant correlation was found between PSQI scores and DPD outcomes. These data suggest that poorer sleep quality was associated with lower behavioral risk taking in teens, mirroring patterns observed in adult populations. These findings contribute to the broader conversation about adolescent health and highlight the distinct ways sleep loss affects different dimensions of decision making.