Community | January 03, 2010 | 8 comments

Late-night teens 'face greater depression risk'

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8435955.stm

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Manatee_man
Going to bed earlier protects teenagers against depression and suicidal thoughts, New York research suggests.

Of 15,500 12 to 18-year-olds studied, those who went to bed after midnight were 24% more likely to have depression than those who went before 2200.

And those who slept fewer than five hours a night had a 71% higher risk of depression than those who slept eight hours, the journal Sleep reports.

It is estimated 80,000 UK children and young people have depression.

The researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York looked at data from 15,500 teenagers collected in the 1990s.

One in 15 of those studied were found to have depression.

As well as the higher risk of depression, those who were set a bedtime by their parents of after midnight were 20% more likely to think about suicide than those whose bedtime was 2200 or earlier.

Those who had less than five hours sleep a night were thought to have a 48% higher risk of suicidal thoughts compared with those who had eight hours of sleep.

Teenagers who reported they "usually get enough sleep" were 65% less likely to be depressed.

Depression and suicidal thoughts were also more likely in girls, older teenagers and in those who had a lower self-perception of how much parents care about them.

Most of the parents of the adolescents in the study set a bedtime of 2200 or earlier.

A quarter set a bedtime of midnight or later.

On average the teenagers were having seven hours and 53 minutes sleep a night - less than the nine hours recommended at that age.
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8 comments // Late-night teens 'face greater depression risk'

  • ryan8566
  • noephoto
    • 0
      noephoto  

    • This study doesn't seem to say anything about depression causing insomnia. This might be a reason why teenagers stay up late, and thus get less sleep. Is the lack of sleep a cause or a correlation?

    • 2 years ago
  • idealist
    • 0
      idealist  

    • i think it was Sir Winston Churchill who said " early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." (and women as well)

    • 2 years ago
  • Manatee_man
  • UndoInfluence
    • 0
      UndoInfluence  

    • Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, one of the most common fallacies seen in all of science.

      Sleep disorders are seen all the time in people with various mental abnormalities. Sleep pattern differences can easily be influenced by the same sort of chemical imbalances that can influence moods and thought patterns. Without any sort of ABA design there is no way you can even begin to infer causation. From the look of it the study did no such study on the thought patterns or mental history of either the parents who set early bedtimes or late bedtimes so there is absolutely no way to rule out any sort of influence their either.

    • 2 years ago
  • poppys4cast
    • 0
      poppys4cast  

    • what's depressing is society telling these night owls that they should be sleeping when they... can't... I find doing things I can't seem to get to in the day eventually helps me go to sleep or not... for many of the wayward thoughts can come to us any time of day if you provide the right environment. Sleep is good, but worrying about not sleeping isn't so good...

    • 2 years ago
  • lopinjop
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