University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers have published a study showing that sleep-deprived adolescents are in greater danger crossing the street than their better-rested peers.

The study, published Sept. 3, 2013, in the Journal of Adolescent Health, revealed that when restricted to four hours of sleep the previous night — half the number of hours experts consider adequate for 14- and 15-year-olds — subjects in a virtual-pedestrian environment took more time to initiate crossings, crossed with less time before contact with vehicles and experienced more close calls than those who slept for 8.5 hours.

“This study suggests that adolescents’ ability to cross the street can be compromised after only one night of acute sleep restriction,” said study author Aaron Davis, Ph.D., psychology post-doctoral fellow in the Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) program in the UABDivision of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Davis studied 55 adolescents in a virtual reality environment at the UAB Youth Safety Lab in the Department of Psychology, where she completed her doctoral work. Teens’ sleep was measured for two weeks by actigraphy. Participants wore an actigraph watch, and their reactions to simulated traffic situations were recorded after sleeping four hours and 8.5 hours.