Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

A quarter of children, most adolescents and almost half of adults do not sleep well

  • Even though we have normalized that you do not sleep well or that you do not sleep the necessary hours, it has important consequences, different according to age. Adults take minutes to sleep to reach everything, while children’s hours “do not depend on their needs but on the needs of adults.”
7 eta 9 ordu artean egin behar ditu lo heldu batek, baina Espainiako Estatuan 6,8 ordukoa da batez bestekoa. Argazkia: Freepik

06 March 2024 - 07:00
Last updated: 08:34

One in four children does not sleep quality and in the last decade they have lost an average of 24 minutes of sleep, as they received in Eldiario.es. The article often recalls that children’s schedules depend on the needs of adults, and stresses the importance of sleep in the first five years of our life: it serves to repair what “breaks down” in our body while we are awake, while we sleep we build an immune system against infections still unknown and the growth hormone develops.

It is also important that young people between 13 and 18 years of age sleep for at least 9 consecutive hours, since many of the hormonal, metabolic and psioneurological processes experienced by adolescents develop during sleep, but a large number of young people do not exceed seven hours of sleep, as already mentioned in this article.

Experts point to a key factor: mobile and electronic devices. Hooked up to the phone, sleep less hours, and worse, disdisposition to messages, warnings and stimuli. Light inhibits melatonin or sleep hormone (even screen light) and doctor Gonzalo Pin in this ARGIA article states that a teenager's biological clock is much more sensitive to light at night than in the morning, that is, if you are with technology it will cost you more to sleep, "and usually you are with technology." The doctor highlights recent research in which an adolescent receives an average of four messages on his cell phone at night.

When you get on your phone, you fall asleep for less hours and worse, unwillingness to messages, warnings and stimuli.

Adult recommendation 7-9 hours

In adulthood, sleep is essential for the body, both to ensure healthy brain function and to allow an adequate physical state. Paradoxically, we know that sleeping is important, but we take minutes to sleep to address daily tasks, concerns and leisure times. In particular, Eldiario says that an adult should sleep between 7 and 9 hours, but in Spain the average is 6.8 hours, and in the last fifty years we have lost between an hour and a half and two hours.

Data from the Spanish state are significant: almost half of adults lack quality sleep, sleep disorders have multiplied by four in a decade, some of them have chronic insomnia and 11% of the population consume tranquilizers or other sleeping drugs. Even the Spanish state is the territory of the world with the highest consumption of benzodiazepine.

At the cognitive, attention, mood, academic or work level, and in decision making, the fact of not sleeping enough or good enough influences. Poor sleep, experts say, also increases the chances of a heart attack, cancer, obesity, diabetes, or depression.

Sleep disorders have multiplied by four in a decade, some of them have chronic insomnia and 11% of the population consume tranquilizers or other sleeping drugs.

In a society used to lorazepam and benzodiazepines, it is advisable to go to the causes of insomnia: if we suffer from other diseases, what are our customs, relationships, difficulties and concerns, if we take the opportunity to rest throughout the day, if we eat well and exercise...


You are interested in the channel: Osasuna
88% of young people in the UAE believe that mental health treatments should be in charge of Osakidetza
The Future Game project has carried out research on the mental health of young people in the Basque Country. 87.7% of 18-35 year-olds think that mental health treatment should be undertaken by public health; 64.5% think that their opinion is not taken into account when talking... [+]

The Health System eliminates a nursing position in the Valley of Roncal
Amparo Viñuales, mayor of Roncal, has denounced that since the clinics of Roncal, Burgi, Garde and Bidankoz will have to reduce attention, it will have an impact on prevention.

Children who ingest tobacco smoke have similar traces of active smokers in their DNA.
The Barcelona Institute of Global Health has investigated the health problems that smoking tobacco smoke can lead to, even if you are not a smoker, and has shown that it leaves dangerous traces in children’s DNA.

2025-02-12 | Jone Gartzia
The Table of Health born in Hankamotz arrives limp to the final phase
The Basque Health Pact Board, set up by the Basque Government, will be just over five months old, and the end of the debate process they wanted completed by March is moving away from meeting to meeting. The established methodology, the list of institutions called to the table,... [+]

Some tools for mental health care in activism
Some activists have compiled the impatience of activists and created a guide to address them collectively. They have worked on issues such as stress, fear, frustration and fatigue.

Osakidetza calls for real and structural solutions in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Bilbao and San Sebastian
Thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday to demand "real solutions" from the Basque Government and the Department of Health to solve the structural problems of Osakidetza.

"Oncological yoga is based on tenderness and respect"
Paula Barrio, professor of oncological yoga, works on tools for oncological processes: “We connect with the body and the injured area.”

2025-01-30 | Leire Ibar
Call to fill the streets for public health in Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz and San Sebastian on February 1
The Popular Platform for Public Health (OPA) has called for demonstrations on February 1. They call for mobilisation to combat the privatisation of health, to strengthen primary care, to improve conditions for health workers, to combat precariousness and to advocate for both... [+]

2025-01-23 | Euskal Irratiak
Erizainen erdiak genero eta sexu indarkeria jasaten du lanean

Bi erizainetatik batek lanean eraso sexistak jasaten dituela azalerazi du Erizainen Ordenak joan den urte bukaeran egin ikerketak. 21.000 erizainek ihardetsi dute, sektore pribatu, publiko eta liberaletik. Hauetan 2.500 gizonak dira.


Several genes related to depression have been identified for the first time in populations around the world
From the point of view of genetic diversity, the most extensive meta-analysis of all time has been carried out to identify genes related to the risk of depression. As a result, about 700 previously unknown varieties have been found and about 300 genes have been found.

Readings for this year
At the beginning of the new year we seem to renew our intention and make lists of tasks to be done by some of us. One is usually the list of books I have to read between these tasks, an increasingly obese list. Since not a few of you have asked me what I read, I thought I'd tell... [+]

Eguneraketa berriak daude