Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Aug:60:202-210.
doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2019.04.007. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Developmental trends in sleep during adolescents' transition to young adulthood

Heejung Park  1 , Jessica J Chiang  2 , Michael R Irwin  3 , Julienne E Bower  4 , Heather McCreath  5 , Andrew J Fuligni  6
Affiliations

Developmental trends in sleep during adolescents' transition to young adulthood

Heejung Park et al. Sleep Med. 2019 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: Poor sleep poses negative health consequences for youth, yet few longitudinal actigraphy studies have examined basic developmental trends in sleep across adolescents' transition to young adulthood. In this longitudinal actigraphy study, stability of individual differences and trajectories of sleep during and after high school were examined. The degree to which sleep trajectories differed by college attendance status was also studied.

Methods: A total of 343 youth with Asian, Latino, and European American backgrounds completed eight days of wrist actigraphy at two-year intervals in Wave 1 (n = 295, Mage = 16.39), Wave 2 (n = 211 including 34 new participants to refresh the sample, Mage = 18.31), and Wave 3 (n = 144, Mage = 20.29). Sleep duration, efficiency, and latency were estimated for weekdays and weekends. Intra-individual variability in duration across nights was also obtained.

Results: Sleep parameters were correlated modestly between Wave 1 and Wave 2, but not correlated between Wave 1 and Wave 3, indicating modest shorter-term and little longer-term stability of individual differences. Multilevel growth models demonstrated declines in weekday sleep duration and efficiency across high school and post-high school years. Intra-individual variability in duration increased over the years. Latency trajectories changed more for non-college attendees compared with college attendees.

Conclusions: Overall the findings suggest developmental trends of worsening sleep during adolescents' transition to young adulthood. Interventions to improve sleep may need to target specific issues faced by youth at that particular period in their lives.

Keywords: Actigraphy; Adolescence; College; Longitudinal; Sleep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations of interest:

none

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Changes in weekday sleep (a) duration, (b) efficiency, and (c) latency during and after high school.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Change in weekend sleep duration during and after high school.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Change in variability in sleep duration across nights.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Change in weekday sleep latency during and after high school according to whether youth attended college after high school.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gradisar M, Gardner G, Dohnt H. Recent worldwide sleep patterns and problems during adolescence: A review and meta-analysis of age, region, and sleep. Sleep Med 2011;12:110–8. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2010.11.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dewald JF, Meijer AM, Oort FJ, Kerkhof GA, Bögels SM. The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review. Sleep Med Rev 2010;14:179–89. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2009.10.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gillen-O’Neel C, Huynh VW, Fuligni AJ. To study or to sleep? The academic costs of extra studying at the expense of sleep. Child Dev 2013;84:133–42. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01834.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Telzer EH, Goldenberg D, Fuligni AJ, Lieberman MD, Gálvan A. Sleep variability in adolescence is associated with altered brain development. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2015;14:16–22. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2015.05.007. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. McMakin DL, Dahl RE, Buysse DJ, Cousins JC, Forbes EE, Silk JS, et al. The impact of experimental sleep restriction on affective functioning in social and nonsocial contexts among adolescents. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2016;57:1027–37. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12568. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types