TUESDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) — An alarming number of adolescents are nodding off in class, driving while drowsy and falling asleep over their homework, all because they aren’t getting enough zzzs, a new survey shows.

“Only 20 percent of children are getting optimal sleep, and nearly half are getting insufficient sleep,” said Christopher Drake, a clinical psychologist with the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Center in Detroit and a member of the board of directors of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). “This is affecting all areas of their life.”

“Clearly, there can be an impact on all areas of functioning,” Drake continued. “Kids who are getting insufficient sleep are more likely to feel depressed, more likely to get poorer grades and be impaired while driving. This is a major, major serious area of concern.”

The revelations come courtesy of the annual Sleep in America poll released Tuesday by the National Sleep Foundation. The poll is part of the NSF’s ninth annual National Sleep Awareness Week campaign, held March 27 through April 2, 2006. The campaign coincides with the return to Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April.

“It’s a trend that we’re beginning to recognize as real, though we have suspected it for a while,” said Dr. Francisco Perez-Guerra, a professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M University’s Health Science Center College of Medicine and director of their Scott & White Sleep Disorders Center in College Station.

“This is the first poll to look at it, so I think we are beginning to learn what is happening out there and what we can do,” said Perez-Guerra, who is also a member of the NSF’s board of directors.

The survey, which includes data on more than 1,600 caregivers and, separately, their adolescent children, also found:

• At least once a week, 28 percent of high-schoolers fall asleep in school, 22 percent fall sleep while doing homework and 14 percent get to school late or miss school because they overslept.
• During the past year, 51 percent of adolescents have driven while drowsy. Some 15 percent of drivers in grades 10 to 12 drive drowsy at least once a week.
• More than one quarter (28 percent) of adolescents say they’re too fatigued to exercise.
• Most parents (90 percent) thought their kids were getting enough sleep time.
• Adolescents who get insufficient sleep are more likely to get lower grades. Eighty percent of adolescents who reported getting an optimal amount of sleep also said they got As and Bs in school.
• Among adolescents who reported being unhappy, tense and nervous, 73 percent felt they didn’t get enough sleep, while 59 percent reported being excessively sleepy during the day.
• As adolescents get older, they get less sleep. Sixth graders reported sleeping an average of 8.4 hours on school nights, while kids in grade 12 reported just 6.9 hours, two hours less than recommended.
• Only 41 percent of respondents said they got a good night’s sleep every, or most, nights. Ten percent reported rarely or never getting a good night’s sleep.
• Boys and girls had similar sleep patterns. African-American adolescents reported getting 7.2 hours of sleep on school nights, compared with 7.6 hours reported by Hispanic adolescents, 7.4 hours by other minorities and 7.7 hours by White adolescents.
• Three-quarters of respondents said they had at least one caffeinated beverage each day, while 31 percent said they had two or more such drinks. Caffeine can affect sleep.
• Rather than engaging in relaxing activities during the hour before bedtime, 76 percent of adolescents reported watching television, 44 percent said they played on the Internet and 40 percent talked on the phone. “Electronics are invading the bedroom,” Perez-Guerra said. And this can also interf