Young adults who get fewer than eight hours of sleep per night have greater risks of psychological distress, a combination of high levels of depressive and anxious symptoms, according to a recent study.
Using average self-reported nightly sleep duration of eight to nine hours as a reference, the study found a linear association between sleep durations of less than eight hours and psychological distress in young adults between 17 and 24 years of age. The risk of psychological distress increased by 14 percent for each hour of nightly sleep loss, such that those sleeping less than six hours a night were twice as likely to be experiencing distress as average sleepers.
In young adults already experiencing distress, the fewer hours they sleep the worse the outcome across the range of sleep hours, say the authors.
The study also found that the risk for the onset of psychological distress was increased only in those young adults with extremely short sleep durations.
Short sleep duration increases the risk of a new onset of distress only among the very shortest sleepers, and doesn't appear to have a psychological impact in young adults in good mental health with moderately short sleep durations, such as seven hours a night.
The authors note that the relationship between sleep and psychological distress is complex. Although short sleep duration could be a real risk for distress, it is possible that sleep loss is a symptom of previous episodes of psychological distress that have got better, or that sleep disturbances reflect a comorbid condition that hinders distress from resolving. These findings suggest that increases in the levels of distress reported by young adults may be related to changes in their sleep patterns.
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