Too much coffee and texting leaves teenagers needing forty winks

Teenagers are stoking themselves up with caffeine, staying up all night playing with gadgets and falling asleep during the day. Researchers from Drexel University in Philadelphia surveyed 100 12- to 18-year-olds about their use of technology at night, their caffeine consumption and their sleepiness during the day. They found that on average the children spent 5.3 hours between nine at night and six in the morning using electronic gadgets. Only one in five said they got between eight and ten hours sleep a night. A third of the children said they fell asleep in school and some said they fell asleep as many as eight times a day. The more time children spent playing with gadgetry the likelier they were to fall asleep. The average caffeine consumption was 215mg per day; the equivalent of a couple of espressos. Nearly three-quarters of the participants drank more than 100mg a day and 11% drank over 400mg.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE54S4SO20090531?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10482&sp=true