Sleep, anxiety, and depression in adolescence

Adolescent sleep problems including insufficient sleep, poor-quality sleep, and related daytime impairments are common in adolescents, who are particularly susceptible to experiencing these problems owing to a “perfect storm” of neurodevelopmental and psychosocial factors that are unique to this stage of life. In fact, adolescent sleep problems commonly co-occur with depression and anxiety, and likely share complex bidirectional relationships over time. Evidence indicates that sleep problems, particularly insomnia, often precede the emergence of the onset of depression in adolescents, and may mediate the sequential comorbidity between anxiety and depression. An important future direction is to explore sleep improvement interventions tailored to the unique developmental needs of adolescents, which may represent a novel approach to prevent adolescent onset mental disorders.