Editorial Perspective: Adolescents’ fragile sleep—shining light on a time of risk to mental health

Abstract

As many other facets of life—biological, behavioral, psychological, cognitive, and social—undergo change during adolescence, so too does sleep. The context of sleep behavior is modified by alterations to underlying bioregulatory processes that challenge sleep’s timing, regularity, and quantity. The buildup of sleep pressure during the day gets slower, opening the door for youth to stay awake later; however, the amount of sleep required does not diminish. Further, the circadian timing system delays, again providing the biological impetus for later sleep. When these changes meet societal demands for early wake, most teens cannot find a way to get enough sleep at a consistent time from night to night. Insufficient and irregular sleep provides a fragile foundation to support mental health.

Sleep quality, timing, and psychological difficulties in Italian school-age children and their mothers during COVID-19 lockdown

“…Interestingly, although children showed a mild worsening in sleep quality, the rate of potential disturbed sleep did not increase significantly, as we observed in pre-schoolers (Di Giorgio et al, 2020). The potential risk for incurring in poor sleep due to the home confinement may have been attenuated by the later sleep timing, more aligned with the biological clock of older/pre-puberal children (Carskadon & Barker, 2020). Moreover, the change in children' sleep quality was associated with their mothers' difficulties in regulating their emotions.…”

“…The pandemic outbreak, imposing a prolonged and unexpected interruption of the normal school routine, daily activities, and connections with peers, could represent an important risk factor for physical and mental health in children and families. Sleep seemed to be a crucial joining link between physical and psychological wellbeing, especially for younger individuals (Becker & Gregory, 2020;Carskadon & Barker, 2020;Gregory & O'Connor, 2002). For instance, sleep duration in school-age children is negatively correlated with behavior and mood problems (Paavonen et al, 2009) and both sleep and timing modulate the children's abilities to adequately regulate emotions (Carskadon & Barker, 2020).…”

“…Sleep seemed to be a crucial joining link between physical and psychological wellbeing, especially for younger individuals (Becker & Gregory, 2020;Carskadon & Barker, 2020;Gregory & O'Connor, 2002). For instance, sleep duration in school-age children is negatively correlated with behavior and mood problems (Paavonen et al, 2009) and both sleep and timing modulate the children's abilities to adequately regulate emotions (Carskadon & Barker, 2020). Prolonged home confinement due to pandemic outbreaks might induce children to significantly postpone sleep and wake time, with an elongation of time spent in bed doing daily activities such as remote learning, studying, or playing (Guan et al, 2020).…”

Sleep in the time of COVID-19: findings from 17000 school-aged children and adolescents in the UK during the first national lockdown

“…[ 6 , 28 ] Biological, psychosocial, and societal factors contribute to pediatric sleep and its disruption. [ 29 , 30 ] Psychosocial factors, such as use of devices with screens[ 31–33 ] and increased autonomy[ 34 , 35 ] can exacerbate the biological tendency for delayed sleep in adolescence[ 36–38 ] and increase the likelihood that insufficient sleep is obtained.…”

Sleep disorders predict the one-year onset, persistence, but not remission of psychotic experiences in pre-adolescence: a longitudinal analysis of the ABCD cohort data

“…Several large population cohort studies have reported that sleep problems during childhood predict psychotic experiences in teenage years (Fisher et al, 2014; Morales-Muñoz et al, 2020; Thompson et al, 2015). Furthermore, as in adults, sleep problems in children are linked to a wide range of other negative mental and physical health outcomes (Carskadon & Barker, 2020; Dong et al, 2019; Gregory & Sadeh, 2012; Zhang et al, 2017).…”