Developmental trajectories of sleep in offspring of parents with mood disorders

Youth at familial risk for mood disorders often report disturbed sleep, yet it is unclear which aspects of sleep distinguish them from low-risk peers or when differences emerge developmentally.

A total of 176 youth at familial risk for mood disorders (mean age = 14.6 years) and 119 control youth (mean age = 13.8 years), aged 8 to 25, wore wrist actigraphy continuously for 2 weeks. Total sleep time, sleep midpoint timing, and sleep regularity were derived from actigraphy data. Generalized additive mixed models estimated nonlinear developmental trajectories across age. Confidence bands identified age intervals at which groups diverged.

High- and low-risk youth followed different developmental patterns of total sleep time (F = 6.35, adjusted p < 0.001), sleep midpoint timing (F = 11.3, adjusted p < 0.001), and sleep regularity (F = 3.96, adjusted p = 0.028). High-risk youth had lower total sleep time in middle childhood (ages 8-8.8) and higher total sleep time in young adulthood (ages 18.2-23.9). They had a later sleep midpoint in late childhood (ages 10.2-14.1) and an earlier sleep midpoint from late adolescence to young adulthood (ages 17.3-25.0). High-risk youth slept more regularly from late adolescence to young adulthood (ages 17.8-21.7).

High-risk youth showed poorer sleep than controls in early adolescence but better sleep in late adolescence through young adulthood, possibly reflecting shifting sleep priorities across development, though the mechanisms underlying these differences remain unclear.