According to a new study, teenagers and young adults who take time for adequate sleep on weekends can significantly improve their mental well-being. Researchers from the University of Oregon and the State University of New York at Upstate Medical University found that recovering from sleep deprivation on weekends reduces the risk of developing depression by 41%.
In the study, which included participants aged 16 to 24, those who slept more on Saturday and Sunday reported fewer signs of depression compared to those who did not.
The results of this research, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, add to the growing body of evidence regarding the importance of sleep for the mental health of youth. Teenagers often face sleep problems and are at high risk for depressive states, yet this group has been insufficiently studied in the context of compensatory sleep.
This study is the first dedicated to weekend sleep recovery among American teenagers and young adults. Previous research focused on schoolchildren from China and Korea. Many teenagers in the U.S. accumulate sleep deficits during the school week, balancing studies, socializing, extracurricular activities, and sometimes work.
Melinda Kaysment, an associate professor at the University of Oregon and head of the Sleep Lab, points to expert recommendations that teenagers need to sleep between eight to ten hours at the same time. However, she acknowledges that this may be difficult for many young people to achieve.
While researchers emphasize that the ideal scenario remains adhering to a sleep schedule of eight to ten hours every night, they understand that this advice is not always realistic. In cases where teenagers cannot reach this goal on weekdays, longer sleep on weekends may help reduce the risk of depressive symptoms.
Kaysment notes that it is normal for teenagers to be "night owls," so parents should allow their children to catch up on sleep over the weekends if they are sleep-deprived during the week. This can positively impact their mental health.
The researchers examined data from participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2021 to 2023, during which respondents reported their bedtimes and wake-up times on weekdays and weekends. Based on the collected information, scientists assessed the amount of compensatory sleep on weekends by comparing the average sleep duration on Saturday and Sunday with weekdays. Participants also shared their emotional state and were classified as having depressive symptoms if they felt sad or down every day.
Circadian rhythms, which govern biological sleep cycles, naturally shift during adolescence, making it difficult to go to bed early, even when young people feel tired. According to Kaysment, at this age, teenagers become "night owls," and their bedtime shifts to later hours until around 18-20 years old, after which they begin to go to bed earlier again.
For many teenagers, the most natural sleep time is from 11:00 PM to 8:00 AM, which often does not align with the early start times of schools across the country. This mismatch has led sleep experts and medical professionals to support initiatives to shift school start times to later in the day as a public health measure.
Depression ranks among the leading causes of disability for people aged 16 to 24. In this context, disability refers to disruptions in daily life, such as missed work, tardiness, and difficulties in fulfilling obligations. This makes this age group particularly important for studying risk factors for depression and developing effective prevention strategies.
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