Date:

December 6, 2017

Source:

American College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Summary:

Chronic
sleep deprivation — which can involve staying up late, and waking up early for
work or school — has become a way of life for both kids and adults, especially
with the increasing use of phones and tablets late into the night. But this
social jet lag poses some serious health and mental health risks: new research
finds that for teenagers, even a short period of sleep restriction could, over
the long-term, raise their risk for depression and addiction.

Chronic sleep deprivation
— which can involve staying up late, and waking up early for work or school —
has become a way of life for both kids and adults, especially with the
increasing use of phones and tablets late into the night. But this social jet
lag poses some serious health and mental health risks: new research finds that
for teenagers, even a short period of sleep restriction could, over the
long-term, raise their risk for depression and addiction.

University of
Pittsburgh’s Peter Franzen and Erika Forbes invited 35 participants, aged
11.5-15 years, into a sleep lab for two nights. Half the participants slept for
10 hours, while the other half slept only four hours. A week later, they came
back to the lab for another two nights and adopted the opposite sleep schedule
from their initial visit.

Each time they visited
the lab, the participants underwent brain scans while playing a game that
involved receiving monetary rewards of $10 and $1. At the end of each visit,
the teens answered questions that measured their emotional functioning, as well
as depression symptoms.

The researchers found
that sleep deprivation affected the putamen, an area of the brain that plays a
role in goal-based movements and learning from rewards. When participants were
sleep-deprived and the reward in the game they played was larger, the putamen
was less responsive. In the rested condition, the brain region didn’t show any
difference between high- and low-reward conditions.

Franzen and Forbes also
found connections between sleep restriction and mood: after a night of
restricted sleep, the participants who experienced less activation in the
putamen also reported more symptoms of depression. This is consistent with
findings, from a large literature of studies on depression and reward
circuitry, that depression is characterized by less activity in the brain’s
reward system.

The results suggest that
sleep deprivation in the tween and teen years may interfere with how the brain
processes rewards, which could disrupt mood and put a person at risk of
depression, as well as risk-taking behavior and addiction.

Story Source:

Materials provided by American College of
Neuropsychopharmacology. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.