Teenagers who get poor sleep are more likely to harm themselves on purpose, a new study says.
Shorter sleep, going to sleep later and frequent waking during the night all were significantly associated with a 14-year-old's risk of self-harm, researchers report in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
This risk remained elevated even as teens turned 17, researchers noted.
"While this is clearly an unfavorable relationship, one positive from this research is that sleep is a modifiable risk factor -- we can actually do something about it," lead researcher Michaela Pawley, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Warwick in the U.K., said in a news release.
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