Lack of sleep could cause mood disorders in teens

runawaybunny

Administrator
Staff member
Chronic sleep deprivation--which can involve staying up late, and waking up early for work or school--has become a way of life for both kids and adults, especially with the increasing use of phones and tablets late into the night. But this social jet lag poses some serious health and mental health risks: new research finds that for teenagers, even a short period of sleep restriction could, over the long-term, raise their risk for depression and addiction.

University of Pittsburgh's Peter Franzen and Erika Forbes invited 35 participants, aged 11.5-15 years, into a sleep lab for two nights. Half the participants slept for 10 hours, while the other half slept only four hours. A week later, they came back to the lab for another two nights and adopted the opposite sleep schedule from their initial visit.

Each time they visited the lab, the participants underwent brain scans while playing a game that involved receiving monetary rewards of $10 and $1. At the end of each visit, the teens answered questions that measured their emotional functioning, as well as depression symptoms.

The researchers found that sleep deprivation affected the putamen, an area of the brain that plays a role in goal-based movements and learning from rewards. When participants were sleep-deprived and the reward in the game they played was larger, the putamen was less responsive. In the rested condition, the brain region didn't show any difference between high- and low-reward conditions.

Franzen and Forbes also found connections between sleep restriction and mood: after a night of restricted sleep, the participants who experienced less activation in the putamen also reported more symptoms of depression. This is consistent with findings, from a large literature of studies on depression and reward circuitry, that depression is characterized by less activity in the brain's reward system.

The results suggest that sleep deprivation in the tween and teen years may interfere with how the brain processes rewards, which could disrupt mood and put a person at risk of depression, as well as risk-taking behavior and addiction.

Source: American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Meeting: 2017 ACNP Annual Meeting

This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ConductDisorders or its staff.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
100% agree with this. Just look at how a lack of sleep effects babies and younger children.

Did you observe sleep differences in you kids/other kids you spent a lot of time with?

My four each had different amounts of sleep they had to have in order to feel rested, even as babies.

My twins always slept the most (ttl), from infancy on and they still need lots of sleep, while my youngest never slept a lot as an infant, toddler, or even now as a young teen. My son was somewhere in between.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Did you observe sleep differences in you kids/other kids you spent a lot of time with?

My four each had different amounts of sleep they had to have in order to feel rested, even as babies.

My twins always slept the most (ttl), from infancy on and they still need lots of sleep, while my youngest never slept a lot as an infant, toddler, or even now as a young teen. My son was somewhere in between.
Hi Apple! :)

Excellent question. I did in fact. Sleep requirements ranged from full nights, to just a few hours during the night, to naps, sometimes more than one nap a day.

Bedtime in our house was typically around 7pm - 7:30pm, 7 days a week, and yet, I remember one of my kids always waking just prior to my bedtime, which has always been around 10:30 (give or take an hour on either side).

Anyhow, I'd check and change the waking child's diapers, make-up another bottle (if needed), and said child would fall back asleep until the wee hours of the morning (2am - 3am), at which time a repeat performance of the above would happen all over again, night, after night, after night.

Naps were standard in our house, too, but my oldest son required two each day... one late into the morning, and another later in the afternoon. He slept poorly as a baby/toddler.

It was particularly interesting to observe the results of sleep on my kids, as each kids rest needs varied from the other.
 
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