Late Nights Show Higher Death Rates

Those feelings of sadness, depression, and wanting to be left alone after a late night are finally being explained,thanks to a study from Columbia University.

James Gangswisch led a team in the Medical Center at the University to find out how staying up late affected teen’s moods. The team surveyed 15,659 teens and their parents in a National Institutes of Health study of adolescent health.

The survey found that teens whose parents encouraged a nine to ten p.m. bedtime were in bed at around ten p.m. This concluded that they slept for about eighthours and ten minutes, compared to seven and a half hours for teens allowed to stay up past midnight.

According to the study, teens whose parents allow them to stay up past midnight on school nights are 42 percent more likely to be depressed than teens who go to bed at ten p.m.. The teens who are allowed to stay up later are also 30 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts in the past year.

According to Gangswisch, teens seem to be staying up later than in past years because of distractions such as Facebook, Twitter, and especially texting.

Some people, however, argue that lack of sleep is not causing the depression, but that depression is leading to teens not getting enough sleep. Trouble sleeping, low energy and fatigue are actually listed as common symptoms of depression on a list given by (www.pristiq.com). Researchers reasoned that this was because during depression, stress and lasting thoughts preoccupy the brain, making it difficult to get to sleep.

Another explanation is that habits of depressed thinking building up during the day and the brain becomes exhausted instead of refreshed. People suffering from depression also frequently wake up in the middle of the night and find it hard to get back to sleep.

Insomnia and Hypomania are two sleeping disorders linked to depression. Insomnia is when a person has trouble sleeping and is the most commong sleeping disorder connected to depression. Hypomania is when people get too much sleep. People with this disease may get up to 20 hours of sleep a day, but this is very rare.

Staying up late leads to depression, so getting enough sleep is vital, especially while growing up.