How long should we sleep? A focus on depression 💤

A target window for sleep duration.

How Long Should We Sleep? Exploring the Relationship Between Sleep Duration and the Prevalence of Depression

Study Details

This new study analysed data from over 4,000 adults to establish the links between sleep duration and depression prevalence 😴

1️⃣ To help identify a target sleep window

2️⃣ And to identify any difference between weekday vs weekend sleep

Here is what they found ⬇️

Key Findings

Weekend sleep duration was positively correlated with depression prevalence ‼️

But not total depression score or the annoyance of depression ✅

A U-shaped association of sleep duration with the prevalence, total score, and annoyance of depression was identified 🔍

With the inflection points for depression prevalence at…

👉 7.7 h for weekdays

👉 8.3 h for weekends

Better sleep durations were identified as…

🎯 7.5 - 7.8 h on weekdays

🎯 8.0 - 8.7 h on weekends

Conclusion

This study confirms previous findings that both insufficient and excessive sleep are associated with higher prevalence of depression 🚨

There is a complex relationship between sleep and mental health, but aiming to sleep within the above target windows could be a useful step in supporting mental health outcomes ✅

Reference

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41419688/

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