Sleep: Why Is It Important For Adolescent Mental Health In Their Future Lives?

In a study published in 2020, 15-year-old psychologist Faith Orchard looked at data from a large group of teenagers being tracked at the University of Sussex aged 15 to 24. It turns out that those who reported poor sleep at age 15, but who were not suffering from depression or anxiety at the time, were more likely than their peers to experience anxiety or depression. when they were 17, 21 or 24 years old. .

Problems sleeping in adults could also be a sign of depression in the future. An analysis based on changing data from 34 studies, which included tracking around 150,000 people over a period ranging from three months to 34 years, found that if people had trouble sleeping, the risk of depression increased. later in life could be higher. . Double.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone with insomnia will develop depression later on. Most people don’t. The last thing people with insomnia need, of course, is to worry about what might happen to them in the future.

But you can see why, in some cases, poor sleep contributes to poor mental health. Lack of sleep has well-established negative effects on us, including the tendency to estrange from friends and family, lack of motivation, and over-arousal, all of which can affect the quality of a person’s relationships. which increases the risk of depression. . In addition, certain biological factors must be taken into consideration. Lack of sleep can lead to increased inflammation in the body, which affects mental health issues.

Researchers are currently studying the relationship between sleep disturbances and other mental health issues.

And prominent Oxford neuroscientist Russell Foster discovered that this connection doesn’t just happen in depression. Disruption of circadian rhythms – the normal sleep-wake cycle – is not uncommon in people with what is called bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. In some cases, the body clock can become so messy that people find themselves awake all night and falling asleep during the day.

Foster and his colleague, clinical psychologist Daniel Freeman, have called for sleep problems to be given a higher priority in mental health care. And since sleep problems are common to different diagnoses, there is no tendency to view them as a central factor in any particular case. He believes that sometimes sleep problems are overlooked when they can be fixed.

Even when mental health issues precede the sleep disturbance stage, lack of sleep can exacerbate a person’s difficulties. Ultimately, a single night of sleep deprivation has a lingering negative effect on mood and thinking.

The complex relationship between sleep and mental health is further reinforced by the finding that if you treat depression, sleep problems don’t go away entirely. It’s easy to see how psychological treatments that help people reduce negative rumination can also get them to sleep more easily.

But in 2020, Shirley Reynolds, a clinical psychologist at the University of Reading, and her team tried three different psychological treatments for depression. It was also effective in reducing depression, but only treated sleep problems for half of the participants. As for the other half, insomnia persisted, indicating that it was independent of their depression and should be treated separately.

However, sleep problems and mental health issues can result from the same causes, like traumatic or negative events, for example. Or excessive contemplation and rumination of memories or various genetic factors. The genes involved in the serotonin pathways and dopamine performance have been shown to be factors that cause both sleep disturbances and depression, just like the genes that affect the human body clock (system day and night).

And, as we’ve seen before, insomnia and mental health issues are likely to exacerbate, making both issues worse than before. You are worried, you cannot sleep, you cannot sleep, therefore you are more worried and anxious, and so on, in an increasing cycle.

It is also possible that lack of sleep is an early warning signal rather than a cause of later depression. Anxiety that keeps you from falling asleep can in some cases be the first symptom of more serious mental health issues that will plague you in the future.

Foster is convinced that from a biological point of view, the best way to decipher the network of association and causation is to study the effect of the disruption of circadian rhythms on the brain.

He says we need to look at the complex interactions between multiple genes, brain regions, and neurotransmitters to understand what’s going on.

Therefore, persistent sleep problems may need to be taken more seriously in adolescents and adults. Interventions during sleep (that is, giving the patient a medication to help him fall asleep) is a simple, well-defined and, in some cases, successful method. What is already clear, from a comprehensive and diverse analysis of a total of 49 studies, is that treating poor sleep in those with insomnia who already have symptoms of depression helps them. not only to sleep better, but also reduces depression.

The Big Oasis experiment conducted by Daniel Freeman at 26 universities across the UK found that digital cognitive behavioral therapy for students with insomnia not only helped them fall asleep, but also reduced the occurrence of hallucinations. and paranoia, which are symptoms of a mental disorder.

The million dollar question is whether treating poor sleep can even prevent mental health issues in the end. To answer this, large-scale and long-term trials will be necessary.

One of the benefits of early and effective treatment for preventing poor sleep – both for the sleep problem itself and for reducing more general mental health problems – is that there is less embarrassment or pain. stigma surrounding insomnia, so it may be easier to get people to apply. treatment.

In the meantime, anyone who has trouble sleeping can try the techniques that have proven to be the most effective: making sure you have enough light during the day (in the morning for most people); No nap for more than 20 minutes; Not eating, exercising or drinking caffeine late at night, avoiding reading emails or discussing stressful topics in bed; Keep the bedroom cool, quiet, and dark, and try to wake up and sleep at the same time each day.

Of course, sleeping better on your own won’t solve a mental health crisis. But could it make a difference in the long run? Even if it isn’t, as sleeping teens know, there is nothing better than a good night’s sleep, even if sleep is just for sleeping.