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Abstract
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STUDY OBJECTIVES: This study examines the relationship between experimentally manipulated sleep duration and mood in adolescents.
METHODS: Thirty-four adolescents (20 male), aged 15 to 17 years, lived in a sleep laboratory for ten days and nine nights. They were allocated to one of three sleep "doses" for five consecutive nights for :5 hours', 7.5 hours' or 10 hours' sleep opportunity per night. Two baseline nights and two recovery nights entailed 10 hours' sleep opportunity per night. Mood was measured every three hours during wake using unipolar visual analogue scales measuring the mood states "depressed", "afraid", "angry", "confused", "anxious", "happy" and "energetic".
RESULTS: Mixed models analyses with post hoc comparisons revealed that participants in the 5-hour group, but not the 7.5-hour or 10-hour groups, reported being significantly more depressed, angry and confused during sleep restriction than at baseline. Adolescents were significantly less happy and energetic during sleep restricted to 5h and significantly less energetic during sleep restricted to 7.5h. When adolescents had 10h sleep opportunities their happiness significantly increased. No statistically significant effects of sleep restriction were found for fear or anxiety, although small-to-moderate effects of sleep restricted to 5h or 7.5h were found. Two nights of recovery sleep was not sufficient to recover from increased negative mood states for the 5-hour group, although recovery occurred for positive mood states.
CONCLUSIONS: Given the prevalence of insufficient sleep and the rising incidence of mood disorders and dysregulation in adolescents, these findings highlight the importance of sufficient sleep to mitigate these risks.
Language: en |