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Sydney: Have you witnessed your teenage son getting more active in the
evenings compared to rest of the day? He may be prone to develop
insomnia in addition to depression and anxiety. Teenagers who are more
active in the evenings are more likely to have depression and
insomnia, research finds. Such people are also more likely to have
obsessive- compulsive disorder, separation anxiety and social phobia.
"Our findings suggest that the 'eveningness' chronotype – being more
active in the evenings – is an independent risk factor for insomnia
and depression," said Pasquale Alvaro from University of Adelaide's
school of psychology. In many countries, nearly 11 percent of
teenagers aged 13-16 years experience insomnia at some stage. Having
insomnia in addition to anxiety or depression can further intensify
the problems being experienced with each individual disorder. "It can
lead to such problems as alcohol and drug misuse during adolescence,"
Alvaro added. To reach this conclusion, Alvaro surveyed more than 300
Australian high school students aged 12 18 to better understand their
sleep habits, mental health condition and the time of day they were
most active. He found that the presence of insomnia was independently
linked with depression, generalised anxiety disorder and panic
disorder among teenagers. The results were published in the journal
Sleep Medicine.
