Sleep-related factors: associations with poor attention and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Background: Sleep duration is known to be associated with depression and attention deficits in children, though the majority of studies have focused on adolescents. Attention problems and depressive symptoms related to sleep factors have not been studied simultaneously in the non-clinical child population before.

Methods: Sleep quantity, adverse bedtime behaviour, daytime sleepiness, poor attention and symptoms of depression were assessed using self-report measures. The participants were 11 years old (n = 439).

Results: Short sleep duration during the school week is related to poor attention and high depression. It is not a significant predictor of low attention and high depression symptoms in logistic regression analyses. Instead, adverse bedtime behaviour and daytime sleepiness predict them highly significantly.

Conclusions: Short sleep duration is related to poor attention and depressive symptoms as suggested by previous work. However, the significant role of other sleep-related factors calls for further research.

Keywords: attention; bedtime behaviour; daytime sleepiness; depressive symptoms; sleep duration.