Later bedtimes and shorter sleep durations may contribute to idiopathic scoliosis development in children and adolescents, and these sleep pattern differences could partially explain the higher idiopathic scoliosis incidence observed in urban compared to rural students.
Urban students had higher idiopathic scoliosis incidence rates than rural students.
Urban students tended to have later bedtimes and shorter total sleep durations compared to rural students.
Idiopathic scoliosis incidence was significantly correlated with bedtime, total sleep time, and changes in total sleep time.
Sleep pattern differences between urban and rural students may partially explain the urban-rural disparity in idiopathic scoliosis incidence.
The etiology of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is multifactorial, and the influence of lifestyle factors such as sleep was not clearly understood prior to this study.
This research suggests that sleep habits in children and teenagers may be linked to the development of idiopathic scoliosis — a sideways curvature of the spine with no clearly known cause. Using health and lifestyle data from nearly 4,700 Korean students aged 7 to 18, researchers found that going to bed later and getting less total sleep were both significantly associated with higher rates of scoliosis diagnoses. Students living in cities showed higher scoliosis rates than those in rural areas, and city students also tended to stay up later and sleep less — often because they spent more hours studying. The study found three statistically significant correlations: later bedtimes, shorter sleep duration, and greater changes in sleep duration were all linked to higher scoliosis incidence. These findings suggest that disrupted or insufficient sleep during the growing years might play a role in whether scoliosis develops, though the exact biological mechanism is not yet understood. The authors propose that sleep differences may partly explain why urban children are diagnosed with scoliosis more often than rural children. This research suggests that sleep habits could be a modifiable lifestyle factor relevant to scoliosis risk in young people, which has not been well studied before. Because scoliosis is typically identified during childhood and adolescence — a period when sleep is critical for physical development — these findings point to a potentially important area for future research. The study was retrospective and based on correlations, so it cannot prove that poor sleep directly causes scoliosis, but it opens the door for further investigation into whether improving sleep habits might help reduce scoliosis risk.
Cho W, Lee S, Sung S, Kwon J, Moon S, Suk K, et al.. (2026). Association of Sleep Patterns with the Development of Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Nationwide Pediatric Cohort Study.. Clinics in orthopedic surgery. https://doi.org/10.4055/cios25256