Lonely teenagers are more likely to have poor quality of sleep: Study

London: Researchers have said that lonely teenagers are more likely to have trouble falling asleep and poor sleep quality.

Loneliness is defined by researchers as a feeling of distress that people experience when they perceive their social relationships to be inadequate.

The study showed that the young adults, who are lonely are 24 per cent feel tired and have difficulty concentrating during the day.

Teenagers may also have poor sleep quality, including the time it takes to fall asleep, sleep duration and sleep disturbances, as well as daytime dysfunction such as staying awake during the day.

Louise Arseneault Professor at King's College London said,"Diminished sleep quality is one of the many ways in which loneliness gets under the skin, and our findings underscore the importance of early therapeutic approaches to target the negative thoughts and perceptions that can make loneliness a vicious cycle."

Further, the association between loneliness and poor sleep quality was found to be almost 70 per cent stronger among those exposed to the most severe forms of violence, including crime, sexual abuse, child maltreatment and violent abuse by family members or peers.

Researchers said, restless sleep in lonely individuals may be because they feel less safe or the result of a heightened biological stress response.

Timothy Matthews from King's College London added, "We also found that past exposure to violence exacerbated the association between loneliness and poor sleep, which is consistent with the suggestion that sleep problems in lonely individuals are related to feeling unsafe."

For the study, the team analysed 2,232 18-19 year-old twins born in England and Wales.

The findings was published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

(With IANS inputs)