Lack of Sleep May Lead to Depression in Adolescents

Sleep is an essential part of everyone's life. It helps us function and go about our daily lives and keeps our emotional well-being in check. As expected, the younger we are the more sleep we need. Parents make the decision on when kids get to go to bed and basically control their sleep schedule. If it was up to kids, they would stay up all night watching cartoons and eating ice cream because they don't realize what lack of sleep does to them. Therefore, it is up to parents to make sure that kids get the right about of sleep to help them live healthier lifestyles and mental well being.

A study in the January issue of SLEEP journal showed that kids who went to bed later at a young age had a higher chance of depression and suicide. An adolescent with a parental set bedtime of 12 midnight and later had 24% higher chance of being depressed and considering suicide. The number of hours of sleep a night that an adolescent gets also has an effect on their depression and suicide rates. Adolescents who got five or less hours of sleep a night were 71% more likely to show signs of depression and 48% more likely to think of suicide than those who got 5 or more hours a night. James E. Gangwisch, PhD, assistant professor at Columbia University Medical center uses these results as more proof that short sleep duration plays an important role in the etiology of depression.

Detailed results of these sleep studies on adolescents can be found on the American Academy of Sleep Medicine website.