Teens: you need your sleep.

A new study in the Journal Preventive Medicine shows teens who get less than six hours of sleep a night could be at greater risk for engaging in dangerous behavior.

Researchers at Florida International University looked at the sleep durations of more than 15,000 high-schoolers as part of the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

They found the teens who averaged less than six hours a sleep were more likely to use alcohol, participate in risky sexual behaviors, get in fights and are obese.

Compared with teens who averaged eight or more hours a sleep a night, teens who clocked five hours of sleep were more likely to engage in every single one of the 12 risky behaviors measured.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends teens get eight and a half to nine and a half hours of sleep a night.

Source: www.wwmt.com