Associations of adolescents’ lifestyle habits with their daytime functioning in Japan

Abstract

Objective: To assess associations of adolescents’ lifestyle habits with their daytime functioning in Japan. Methods: A total of 2,722 questionnaires obtained from pupils in grades 5 to 12 in Japan were assessed by the multiple comparison test to determine significant differences in the lifestyle habits among the self-reported academic performance categories (AP1: very good; AP2: good; AP3: not good; AP4: poor). Results: The average non-school-day screen time of AP4 pupils was significantly longer than that of AP1 pupils in elementary and junior high schools. In junior and senior high schools, AP4 pupils showed more sleepiness and higher occurrence of breakfast skipping than AP2 pupils. In all school types, sleep duration showed no significant differences among the self-reported academic performance categories. Discussion: Avoiding sleepiness, breakfast skipping, and heavy media usage is expected to ensure adolescents’ daytime functioning. Although not studied here, napping might improve adolescents’ daytime functioning.

Keywords

• screen time
• academic performance
• sleepiness
• breakfast