If a young teen-age boy is sleep-deprived does he have a chance of reaching the height he would be if he slept at least seven hours a night? The child is fourteen. He plays several sports, goes to school and church. Sometimes he will get up early on Saturday, go to play football. Afterward, he will eat lunch on the run, change into his baseball clothes, and play a couple of games of baseball. He survives on the hotdogs he gets at his ballgames, or the fast food he can get after his baseball, basketball, or football practices. He goes to church every Sunday morning and sometimes a couple of times during the week. He also is a freshman in high school. His dream is to be a basketball player,but,he hasn't grown a fraction of an inch in the past three years; maybe even longer than that.
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Answer by tlnay025
you have to look at a lot of things are his parents short people and yes sleep does play a factor
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Children need much more sleep than adults. Growth hormones are released during sleep, so sleep is vital to proper physical and mental development. The effects (positive and negative) of sleep for babies and children are magnified. Tired children are often cranky, fussy and become easily frustrated and difficult. It is often easier for adults to interpret and remedy the effects of tiredness in children than for them to listen to their body’s own signals for more rest.
ReplyDeleteTeenagers need about 9 hours of sleep a night. Sleep is crucial for teenagers because it is while they are sleeping that their bodies release a hormone that is essential during their growth spurt.
*Pituitary gland: The main endocrine gland. It is a small structure in the head. It is called the master gland because it produces hormones that control other glands and many body functions including growth. The pituitary consists of the anterior and posterior pituitary.
The anterior pituitary is the front portion of the pituitary. Hormones secreted by it influence growth, sexual development, skin pigmentation, thyroid function, and adrenocortical function. These influences are exerted through the effects of pituitary hormones on other endocrine glands except for growth hormone which acts directly on cells.
The effects of underfunction of the anterior pituitary include growth retardation (dwarfism) in childhood and a decrease in all other endocrine gland functions normally under the control of the anterior pituitary (except the parathyroid glands). The results of overfunction of the anterior pituitary include overgrowth (gigantism) in children and a condition called acromegaly in adults.
Good quality sleep is important, since human growth hormone production iis most active during deep sleep. His diet doesn't help either. You might want to get him a high potency multivitamin to augment his diet. On the plus side, since he is very active he is stimulating human growth hormone during exercise.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't say how old he is. If he is in his early-mid teens, you still have time for him to shoot up. But if you think he is abnormally short, you could take him to a doctor and have his human growth hormone levels measured. Again depending on his age, he may be a candidate for human growth hormone replacement therapy.