This article was originally written by Stephen Beech for SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets.
Instead of opening your teenager’s blinds as soon as the sun comes up Saturday morning, you might want to let them keep snoozing. A new study suggests that sleeping in on the weekend to catch up on sleep lost during the week can boost young people’s mental well-being.
Researchers from the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Upstate Medical University looked at data involving over 1,000 people ages 16-24. They found that those who caught some extra z’s on Saturday and Sunday were 41% less likely to experience depressive symptoms than those who didn’t.
Teens and young adults commonly face sleep challenges and are at a heightened risk for depression — this study offers one of the first glimpses at the connection between that risk and weekend catch-up sleep.
It’s typical for teens to rack up a sleep deficit during the week because of the many demands on their time and attention, including school, social life, extracurricular activities, and after-school jobs. “Sleep researchers and clinicians have long recommended that adolescents get eight to 10 hours of sleep at a regular time every day of the week, but that’s just not practical for a lot of adolescents, or people generally,” co-author Melynda Casement said in a press release.
She emphasized that the eight to 10 hours advice is still the ideal, but when it isn’t possible, catching up on shuteye during the weekend may lower the risk of depressive symptoms. “It’s normal for teens to be night owls, so let them catch up on sleep on weekends if they can’t get enough sleep during the week because that’s likely to be somewhat protective,” she explained.
Data was drawn from a national survey in which participants reported their bedtimes and wake-up times during the week and weekend. That info was used to calculate their weekend catch-up sleep: the difference between the average sleep per weekend day and the average sleep per weekday. Subjects also answered questions on their emotional well-being, and were considered as having symptoms of depression if they shared that they felt sad or depressed daily.
Circadian rhythms — the body’s internal clock — shift during adolescence, making it harder for most teens to fall asleep as early as they did when they were younger.
“Instead of being a morning lark, you’re going to become more of a night owl,” Casement said. “And sleep onset keeps progressively delaying in adolescence until age 18 to 20. After that, you start becoming more morning larkish again.”
A natural sleep window for many teens is to nod off around 11 p.m. and wake up at 8 a.m, but that conflicts with early start times at most high schools. As a result, many U.S. sleep scientists and health care providers support public health campaigns to start schools later.
Casement noted that depression is one of the leading causes of disability among 16- to 24-year-olds, where “disability” is defined broadly as impairment of daily functioning, such as missing or being late to work, or generally struggling to meet responsibilities.
She added: “It makes that age range of particular interest in trying to understand risk factors for depression and how those might relate to delivery of interventions.”
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