Association between weekend catch-up sleep and specific depressive symptoms: a real world research

Workday sleep deprivation has become normalized in contemporary society. While previous research suggested that weekend catch-up sleep (WCS) could reduce the risk of depression, there is currently limited evidence supporting the role of WCS in reducing the development of specific depressive symptoms. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between WCS and specific depressive symptoms among American.

A total of 7,695 participants were recruited from the 2017-2020 NHANES. Concurrently, an external validation set comprising 180 independent clinical participants from Xijing Hospital was collected. The presence of depressive symptoms was determined through analysis of the PHQ-9 questionnaire, with each item representing one distinct type of depressive symptom. Multivariate logistic regression and generalized additive models were used to determine the correlation between WCS sleep and specific depressive symptoms. Subgroup analysis was used to reveal differences between WCS and specific depressive symptoms in specific populations.

The findings of the multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that WCS associated with a wide range of specific depressive symptoms, particularly suicidal ideation, with OR = 0.53 (95% CI: 0.33-0.85) in the NHANES group and OR = 0.12 (95% CI: 0.04-0.41) in the clinical sample. Following adjustment for all covariates, non-linear associations of WCS with sleep disturbance and psychomotor disturbance in both samples (NHANES/Xijing Hospital). Furthermore, the results of subgroup analyses indicated that specific subgroups of the vast majority of depressive symptoms were correlated with WCS.

The results of this study confirm that WCS inversely related to specific depressive symptoms, particularly among individuals under 35 with suicidal ideation.