Poor childhood sleep doubles risk of teenage depression, study warns

Children who consistently experience poor sleep in their early years have a significantly increased risk of developing depression during adolescence, according to a new study.

Academics at the University of Birmingham are now calling on parents to actively support better sleep patterns in their young children, suggesting this proactive approach could significantly reduce the risk of mental health problems in the future.

They emphasized that sleep is a “modifiable factor” and that addressing inadequate sleep in early childhood is much easier than trying to treat complex emotional symptoms later in life.

The research involved a comprehensive review of data collected from more than 15,000 children who participated in the long-running Kids of the ’90s study, also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Nighttime sleep duration was meticulously recorded at various stages, including when the children were six, 18, and 30 months old, and at ages 3.5, four to five, five to six, and six to seven.

Self-reported depression symptoms were then collected from the same individuals when they reached ages 12.5, 13.5, 16, 17.5, 21 and 22.

The researchers also looked at blood levels of inflammation (the body’s natural immune system’s response to injury or infection) when the children were nine years old.

Approximately 308 children were found to have persistently high levels of depression across all time periods examined.

The research team found that children between the ages of six months and seven who had “persistently” shorter sleep were almost twice as likely to report high levels of depression that persisted between ages 13 and 22.

They said this was the first study to show “the detrimental effect of persistently short night sleep duration from infancy to childhood on more persistent and severe depressive symptoms in adolescence and emerging adulthood.”

“Our results show that children who experienced shorter nighttime sleep duration from six months to seven years were almost twice as likely to show persistently high symptoms of depression that persisted between ages 13 and 22,” they wrote in the journal European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The study, supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre: Oxford Health, found “mixed evidence” about the role of inflammation.

Study leader Dr. from the University of Birmingham. “When you compare the group of children with persistent naps to the normative group, we found that children with persistent naps were twice as likely to present with persistent high levels of depression at all time points between adolescence and young adulthood,” Isabel Morales-Munoz told the Press Association.

He emphasized that poor sleep in childhood is normal and that consistently poor sleep is linked to depression.

“We found that the small number of children who consistently had shorter sleep throughout childhood had an increased risk of developing depression in adolescence,” he added.

“Doubling the odds may seem like a lot, but we found that persistent sleep problems only affected a small number of children in the study, and still only a small percentage of children went on to experience persistent depressive symptoms.

“Sleep is also an element of childhood that can be improved without the need for medical interventions, and efforts to address persistent poor sleep in childhood will have many benefits, including addressing potential mental health risks.”

The University of Birmingham said measures to improve sleep in childhood include implementing earlier and consistent bedtimes, reducing screen time before bed, encouraging physical activity during the day and creating a calm sleep environment.

Dr Morales-Munoz told PA: “I know sometimes these things are not easy, but sometimes they are easier than treating the emotional symptoms.

“Sleep is a modifiable factor. This problem can be intervened in, and we know the interventions are at work.”

One of the authors of this study, Dr. from the University of Birmingham. Rebekah Amos added: “This study improves our understanding of the factors that increase young people’s risk of more severe and persistent depression.

“Findings suggest that chronic inadequate sleep may contribute to long-term mental health problems through biological pathways including inflammation.

“However, improvements in sleep behavior and bedtime routines may interrupt this effect.”