Bedroom environment and parental awareness surrounding junior and high school students: a parent survey study

TL;DR

This study surveyed parents about their teenagers' bedroom environments and sleep habits, finding that parental awareness of sleep duration significantly reduces sleep problems in adolescents.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the role of parental awareness in mitigating sleep-related problems in junior and high school students.

Findings

Approximately 40% of adolescents had bedrooms with east-facing windows, and over half used blackout curtains.

Higher parental awareness of ensuring adequate sleep time was associated with reduced odds of insufficient sleep and late chronotype in both junior and high school students.

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to investigate bedroom environment and parental awareness surrounding junior and high school students. A secondary aim was to explore the relationship between these factors and sleep-related problems in adolescents. A web-based questionnaire survey was conducted in October 2023 with responses from 590 parents of junior high school students and 607 parents of high school students. The survey assessed bedroom environment, parental awareness, and adolescents’ lifestyles and sleep. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the actual conditions of the bedroom environment and parental awareness. To examine the factors associated with sleep-related problems in adolescents, we conducted logistic regression analysis. Approximately 40% of the adolescents had bedrooms with east-facing windows, and more than half used blackout curtains. Seventy percent of parents of junior high school students and 60% of parents of high school students paid attention to adolescents’ sleep duration. Logistic regression analyses showed that sleep-related problems were not significantly associated with the bedroom environment, whereas higher parental awareness of ensuring adequate sleep time was associated with reduced odds of insufficient sleep (OR = 0.36 in junior high school students, OR = 0.49 in high school students; p < 0.05) and late chronotype (OR = 0.57 and 0.63, respectively; p < 0.05) in both groups. This study clarified the bedroom environment and parental awareness of adolescents. While bedroom environment showed no association with sleep-related problems, parental awareness remained crucial in addressing these issues in both junior and high school students.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41105-025-00601-z.

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