Sleepless teens at higher risk for deadly disease: study

The days of pulling all-nighters might be over.

Teens who don’t sleep enough could be at risk for a life-threatening illness, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden discovered that teenagers who get less than seven hours of zzz’s every night are 40% to 50% more likely to later develop multiple sclerosis (MS), compared to those who get a sufficient amount of sleep.

MS is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 2.3 million people globally, according to the National MS Society. The chronic illness is marked by a breakdown in the body’s protective nerve coating, called the myelin sheath, resulting in widespread inflammation and pain.

While the direct cause is unknown, genetics, geography, vitamin D deficiency, smoking, obesity and infections have all been implicated in the development of MS – and the Swedish research team may have another to add to the list.

“Insufficient sleep and low sleep quality during adolescence seem to increase the risk of subsequently developing MS,” the scientists wrote in the study. “Sufficient restorative sleep, needed for adequate immune functioning, may thus be another preventive factor against MS.”

Using data from the Epidemiological Investigation of Multiple Sclerosis, 2,075 patients with MS were selected to participate in the study, along with 3,164 volunteers without it as a control group. Researchers investigated how sleeping more than 7 hours a night compared to those who didn’t.

The study, which began in 2004, found that insufficient sleep correlated with the increased risk of MS, prompting the researchers to question whether sleep quality also played a role in the disease. Those who reported “low” sleep quality were at a 50% higher risk of developing MS than those who reported “good” sleep, researchers concluded.

“Insufficient or disturbed sleep is common among adolescents, which partially can be explained by physiological, psychological and social changes that occur during this age period,” the researchers said in the study, noting that is an “important health issue” potentially tied to “social media use.”

While there’s currently no cure for the disorder — which is considered autoimmune for the way it attacks healthy tissue — recent findings have shed light on its mysterious origins.

Last year, scientists found potential links between mononucleosis – also known as “mono” or “the kissing disease” – and the development of MS, while another study concluded that fast food is to blame. While there are medications available, they don’t always work for patients.

“Dead To Me” actress Christina Applegate has spoken about her diagnosis with the disorder in 2021, saying it was “torture” to work on set while dealing with debilitating symptoms.

“I didn’t know what was happening to me,” she told Variety. “That January, my toes got numb, and I ignored it. The balls of my foot got numb, and I ignored it. All of a sudden, I’d be, like, falling over.”

“People were like, ‘Oh, it’s just neuropathy.’ At this point, they had to take me with a wheelchair to set because I couldn’t walk if the set was far,” she continued. “I was sleeping all the time, and I gained 40 pounds — a lot of things happened.”

Fellow starlet Selma Blair even made a documentary about her struggle with MS nearly two years ago, which detailed her trial with a potentially dangerous stem cell transplant — involving chemotherapy to eliminate her dysfunctional immune system and a healthy stem cell infusion to replenish it.

The experimental treatment has been shown to be moderately successful in some trials, but there is still too much unknown to be sure. But for Blair, it seemed to be successful, as she reported in 2021 that she was “in remission” from MS after her transplant.