Highly variable sleep schedules predict elevated suicide risk
June 8th, 2010 - 2:31 pm ICT by ANIWashington, June 8 (ANI): A new study has shown for the first time that highly variable sleep schedules predict an elevated risk for suicide independent of depression in actively suicidal young adults.
The finding has been presented in San Antonio, Texas, at SLEEP 2010, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.
Results indicate that a sample of actively suicidal undergraduate students had a delayed mean bedtime of 2:08 a.m.; restricted total sleep time of 6.3 hours; and highly variable sleep schedules, with time of mean sleep onset varying by three hours and time of sleep offset varying by 2.8 hours. However, accounting for baseline depression severity, sleep variability was the only sleep measurement to individually predict increases in suicidal risk at one week and three weeks. Sleep irregularity also was the only sleep-related variable to predict greater mood lability, which in turn predicted elevated suicidal symptoms.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the unique association between sleep and suicide risk using an objective assessment of sleep and a prospective study design,” said principal investigator Rebecca Bernert, PhD, Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. “We found that a high degree of irregularity in sleep predicted increases in suicidal symptoms, conferring risk above and beyond the influence of depression. Given that the relationship between sleep disturbances and suicide appears to exist independent of depressed mood, we propose that sleep disturbances may instead confer risk via impaired mood regulation and increased mood lability.”
The three-week study was conducted at the Florida State University Laboratory for the Study of the Psychology and Neurobiology of Mood Disorders, Suicide, and Related Conditions. Bernert and laboratory director Thomas Joiner, PhD, studied 49 actively suicidal undergraduate students between the ages of 19 and 23 years; 71 percent were female. (ANI)
- Snoozing for less or more than 7 hours a day ups risk of heart diseases - Aug 02, 2010
- Severe nightmares linked to elevated suicidal symptoms - Jun 09, 2009
- Early bedtime banishes teen blues - Jan 01, 2010
- Depression leads to increased inflammatory protein linked to heart disease - Oct 06, 2009
- Teens' sleeping patterns a clue to mental health risk - Oct 23, 2010
- Smoking contributes to blues among teens - Aug 30, 2010
- Depression may heighten risk of kidney failure - Mar 11, 2011
- Victims of workplace bullies can suffer severe sleep problems - Sep 01, 2009
- Lesbians, gays, bisexuals at higher risk for severe mental health problems - Feb 03, 2011
- Sexsomnia common among sleep center patients - Jun 07, 2010
- Anti-depressants doing more harm than good: Study - Apr 25, 2012
- Sleep disturbances increase work disability risk - Oct 26, 2010
- Biological changes in depressed patients - Nov 30, 2010
- How depression and anxiety influence physical symptoms - Mar 05, 2011
- Exercise vital for mental fitness too - Feb 24, 2012
Tags: depressed mood, director thomas, florida state university, irregularity, laboratory director, mean sleep, mood disorders, mood lability, mood regulation, objective assessment, phd fellow, professional sleep societies, san antonio texas, sleep disturbances, sleep time, stanford university, suicidal risk, suicide risk, thomas joiner, university laboratory