LONDON, Aug 28: British teenagers are damaging their health by not getting enough sleep because they are distracted by electronic gadgets in their bedrooms, according to a survey on Tuesday.

Advice body The Sleep Council said ‘junk sleep’ could rival the consumption of unhealthy junk food as a major lifestyle issue for parents of teenage children.

Its poll of 1,000 youngsters aged 12 to 16 found that 30 per cent managed just four to seven hours sleep as opposed to the recommended eight or nine hours.

Almost a quarter said they fell asleep more than once a week while watching TV, listening to music or using other electronic gadgets.

“This is an incredibly worrying trend,” said Dr Chris Idzikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre.

“What we are seeing is the emergence of Junk Sleep – that is sleep that is of neither the length nor quality that it should be in order to feed the brain with the rest it needs to perform properly at school.”

Nearly all the teenagers had a phone, music system or TV in their bedroom, with around two-thirds possessing all three.—Reuters