Amount of sleep time linked to risk of teen suicide

Not getting enough sleep can lead to worrisome side effects such as daytime sleepiness and even memory loss. However, did you know that it can be associated with other consequences such as suicidal ideation (thinking of committing suicide)? Studies have confirmed that long total sleep times and short total sleep times (TSTs) are linked to suicidal ideation among adults. The hypothesis that total sleep times also are risks for teens was recently tested, and the results are published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Researchers used the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to conduct their study. The survey included school-based and nationally representative samples. Researchers analyzed the link between suicidality and sleep, accounting for age, sex, race and ethnicity, feelings of sadness, and substance abuse.

About 15 percent of students reported suicidal ideation, 10 percent said they had planned suicide, five percent attempted it, and two percent said that their attempt had required treatment. The teens that had five hours of sleep or less had a higher risk of suicidality than those who had a total sleep time of eight hours. The same goes for teens who had 10 hours of sleep or more.

The findings suggest that both short and long TSTs are risk factors for suicidality in teenagers. More studies need to be done to examine whether or not sleep duration is a causal or modifiable risk factor for teens.

Read more about the realtionship between sleep and suicide.

If you think your teen may have problems sleeping, visit an AASM-accredited sleep center near you.

Photo By: Carlos Perez

Many Non-Depressed Insomniacs Have Suicidal Desires

Insomniacs have no shortage of alone time. Countless overnight hours are spent pondering, obsessing and agonizing over the inability to sleep and the stressful things in your life. This endless introspection may give rise to momentary suicidal desires.

The two-way relationship between sleeplessness and mental health disturbances is well documented at this point. Insomnia is both a symptom and a risk-factor for depression. In fact the DSM-IV lists disturbed sleep patterns as one of the nine main criteria for the diagnosis of major depressive disorder.

You don’t have to be depressed have suicidal thoughts with insomnia, a new study published in Sleep Medicine reports. The article concludes insomnia can predict suicidal desires, with or without diagnosable depression.

The clinical study involved 60 middle-aged patients with depression and insomnia. The subjects were prescribed the anti-depressant Prozac along with the sleeping medication Lunesta or a placebo. Over the course of the 8-week study, the patients were repeatedly assessed for insomnia, suicide ideation and depression.

Statistical analysis shows, although depression severity was directly linked to intensity of suicidal thinking, a similar relationship also holds true for severity of insomnia. Insomnia patients who were no longer depressed still had suicidal thoughts.

These findings further flesh out a disturbing revelation reported this month in the journal SLEEP. Middle-aged men with long-term insomnia are likely to die over a 14 year period. The large-scale, long-term study did not investigate the exact causes of the deaths, but it’s not too much of a stretch that some were suicides.

Like pushing through depression, conquering long-term insomnia can take hard work and dedication. Leading a longer and happier life is clearly worth the effort of working with a clinical sleep specialist to change your nighttime routine and eliminate harmful beliefs that prevent sleep.

Highly variable sleep schedule increases risk for suicidal college students

A new study that’s the subject of a presentation at SLEEP 2010 is the first to show sleep schedules can predict an elevated suicide risk, independent of depression.

A sample of at-risk undergraduate students at the Florida State University had an average bedtime of 2:08 a.m. that varied by about three hours on any given night. They slept around 6.3 hours a night.

Sleep schedule variability was the only sleep measurement that predicted increases in suicidal risk when the students returned to the lab. Irregular sleep habits also predicted greater mood lability, which in turn predicts elevated suicidal symptoms.

The suicidal subjects visited a laboratory on campus three times during the duration of the study. The students underwent a series of tests at the start of the study, a week later and after three weeks.

Suicidal and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Scale for Suicide. Sleep length and variability were obtained by wrist actigraphy. Mood lability was measured daily using scale mood ratings.

The lead author of the abstract, Rebecca Bernert, PhD, Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, suggests the findings could lead to new suicide intervention strategies.

“Compared to other suicide risk factors such as a past suicide attempt, disturbed sleep is modifiable, often visible and amenable to treatment,” she said. “In this way, the study of sleep may inform suicide risk assessment and represent a clinically unique opportunity for intervention.”

Learn more about this study during a presentation scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at SLEEP 2010.

Teen Depression & Suicide: Sleep, Early Bedtimes Protect Adolescents

A new study shows that teens who go to bed early and get enough sleep may be less likely to suffer from depression and have suicidal thoughts. The results were published in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Sleep.

The study involved 15,659 adolescents in grades seven to 12. Data were collected from the teens and their parents.

Teens who reported that they usually sleep for five hours or less per night were 71 percent more likely to suffer from depression. They also were 48 percent more likely to think about committing suicide than teens who reported getting eight hours of nightly sleep. Both depression and suicidal thoughts were less likely in teens who reported that they “usually get enough sleep.”

Teens were more likely to have problems if their parents set a weeknight bedtime of midnight or later. They were 24 percent more likely to suffer from depression than teens who had to go to bed at 10 p.m. or earlier. They also were 20 percent more likely to think about committing suicide.

Teens with a bedtime of 10 p.m. or earlier got the most sleep. They reported sleeping for an average of eight hours and 10 minutes per night. This was 40 minutes more than teens with a bedtime of midnight or later.

“Our results are consistent with the theory that inadequate sleep is a risk factor for depression,” lead author James E. Gangwisch, PhD, told the AASM. “Adequate quality sleep could therefore be a preventative measure against depression and a treatment for depression.”

Seven percent of participants had symptoms of depression. Thirteen percent reported that they seriously thought about committing suicide during the past 12 months.

The NIMH notes that girls are twice as likely as boys to have had a major depressive episode by age 15. But males are much more likely than females to commit suicide. In 2006 suicide was the third-leading cause of death for young people between 15 and 24 years old.

Parents reported setting a wide range of bedtimes. Fifty-four percent of parents reported that their teen had to go to bed by 10 p.m. or earlier on weeknights. Twenty-one percent reported setting a bedtime of 11 p.m. Twenty-five percent reported setting a bedtime of midnight or later.

And most teens complied with the bedtime that their parents set. Seventy percent of teens reported going to bed on time. Overall, teens reported going to bed only about five minutes later on average than their bedtime.

The AASM reports that most teens need a little more than nine hours of sleep each night to feel alert and well rested during the day. But a shift in the timing of their body clock causes teens to feel sleepy later at night. This explains why it can be hard for them to fall asleep before 10 p.m.

In August the Sleep Education Blog reported that a teen’s sleep pattern may be a marker of his or her risk for developing depression. Parents can get tips for teen bed times on SleepEducation.com.

Study Links Insomnia with Suicide Risk

Both Reuters and BBC News report that a new study links insomnia symptoms with an increased risk of suicide.

The one-year study involved 5,692 adults in the U.S. They had no history of mental health problems.

Results show that suicidal thoughts or attempts were more likely in people with symptoms of insomnia. The study controlled for other factors such as depression and substance abuse.

The study measured these three symptoms of insomnia: trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, and waking at least two hours earlier than desired. About 35 percent of people reported having at least one of these sleep problems in the last 12 months.

Results link “waking early” to an increased suicide risk. People who reported this problem were more likely to have had suicidal thoughts. They also were three times more likely to have attempted suicide.

People with more than one insomnia symptom also had a higher suicide risk. They were 2.6 times more likely to try to kill themselves.

A study in the journal Sleep in 2007 reported that sleep problems and nightmares are common in people who have attempted suicide. A 2008 study in the journal Sleep linked suicide risk with a short sleep duration of five hours or less.

A 2005 study in the journal Sleep linked insomnia and nightmares with suicide risk. But after controlling for depression, insomnia was no longer a significant factor.

The CDC reports that suicide is the eleventh-leading cause of death in the U.S. It resulted in 32,637 deaths in 2005. In contrast, there were 18,124 deaths caused by homicide.