2-160 - Predictors and consequences of declining adolescent sleep duration: Physiological, psychological, and historical perspectives

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Sleep is essential for healthy development. Poor sleep is associated with mental health problems, physical health symptoms, and poor academic performance, among other negative developmental outcomes. Sleep duration is known to decline steeply with age across adolescence. Our three papers expand upon this finding by examining predictors of changes in sleep duration, longitudinal trajectories of sleep duration and their consequences, and historical and demographic trends in decreasing sleep duration.

Paper 1 examines longitudinal associations between pubertal development and sleep, finding that early-developing girls have later weekend bedtimes and steeper increases in their weekend bedtimes than on-time or late-maturing girls. This study demonstrates the role of pubertal timing in the biological shift towards later bedtimes on weekends, when youth often have less structure and parental monitoring in their sleep routines than weekdays.

Paper 2 examines longitudinal trajectories of sleep duration from adolescence through young adulthood, finding that trajectories of either increasing or decreasing sleep relate to increases in depression.

Paper 3 demonstrates that sleep duration has declined for the past two decades in all adolescent cohorts. This historical period effect is in addition to age-related sleep decreases, suggesting that recent historical factors have led to declining sleep duration.

Our panel is multidisciplinary, including scholars from Human Development, Psychology, Pediatrics, and Epidemiology. Our discussant, a nationally and internationally renowned expert in child and adolescent sleep, will facilitate an interactive discussion, synthesizing the results and offering critical commentary on the importance of sleep for social, biological, and psychological development in children and adolescents.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Julie Maslowsky, University of Texas -Austin

Discussant

• Ronald E Dahl, University of California, Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• Sleep and the transition to adolescence - Presenting Author: Lindsay Till Hoyt, University of California, San Francisco; Julianna Deardorff, University of California, Berkeley; Melissa Jeanne Hagan, UCSF; Louise Greenspan, Kaiser Permanente; Gayle Windham, California Department of Public Health; Allison G. Harvey, University of California, Berkeley; Cecile Laurent, Kaiser Permanente; Lawrence Kushi, Kaiser Permanente; Robert Hiatt, University of California San Francisco

• Developmental trajectories of sleep from adolescence to emerging adulthood: Associations with depression - Presenting Author: Julie Maslowsky, University of Texas -Austin

• Age, period, and cohort effects on adolescent sleep behavior in the US from 1991 to 2012 - Presenting Author: Katherine Keyes, Columbia University; Julie Maslowsky, University of Texas -Austin; Ava Hamilton, Columbia University; John E Schulenberg, Univ of Michigan