Khaberni - An American study revealed that allowing teenagers and young adults to sleep longer during the weekends, to compensate for the hardships of the study or work week, helps in maintaining their mental health and reduces their chances of suffering from depression.
The study, conducted by a research team from Oregon University, found that teenagers and young adults aged between 16 and24 who get longer sleep hours during the weekend have a decreased likelihood of developing certain mental diseases such as depression by 41%.
Researcher Melinda Kasman, a specialist in psychiatry at Oregon University, states, "Sleep specialists and doctors always advise the necessity for teenagers to get between 8 and10 hours of sleep regularly throughout the weekdays, but this recommendation isn't always practical for many teenagers or people in general."
Catch-up sleep on weekends may affect anxiety symptoms in teens, added Kasman in statements relayed by the research-focused website "Scitech Daily": It’s normal for teenagers to stay up late, therefore let them catch up on lost sleep during the weekend as it has protective benefits for them."
The study, published in the scientific journal Journal of Affective Disorders, was based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the United States, conducted between the years 2021 and2023. It covered regular sleep periods of adolescents whether during weekdays or weekends and monitored their psychological and emotional state or any symptoms of depression appearing on them.
Sleeping in on the weekends can help boost your teen's mental health, study finds | The Independent. Kasman noted that depression is one of the main causes of disability among the age group between 16 and24 years old, referring in this context to the difficulty in performing daily tasks such as not going to work, being late for work appointments, and difficulty in delivering the tasks assigned to the person.
