Sara C. Mednick and James H. Fowler, both of the University of California, San Diego, and Nicholas A. Christakis of the Harvard Medical School mapped the social networks of 8,349 adolescents in grades 7-12.
The study, published in the journal PLoS One, found clusters of poor sleep behavior and marijuana use that extended up to four degrees of separation — to one’s friends’ friends’ friends’ friends — in the social network.
The researchers discovered that teens who are at the center of the network are at greater risk of poor sleep, which in turn means they are more likely to use marijuana.
Contrary to the general assumption that drug use has a negative effect on sleep, the study found sleep loss is likely to drive adolescents to use drugs. The less they sleep the more likely their friends are to sleep poorly and use marijuana.
Sleep has a great impact on all of our lives and poor sleep in children is many times associated with poor jaw position creating poor airways. Therefore it is essential that correction of their poor or retruded jaw position, allergies stabilized, enlarged tonsils and adnoids are removed, and deviated septum’s be corrected early on in life to ensure proper development and function. In doing so this article points at additional benefits that we may not realize are taking place.
If you are interested in reading a terrific book on sleep, sugar, and survival, I highly recommend “Lights Out” by T.S. Wiley and Bent Formby that can be purchased from Amazon.com for less than $10.