Researchers from Hadassah's Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Department have uncovered a significant connection between poor sleep patterns and suicidal thoughts among high-risk adolescents. Their key findings are that for every additional minute it takes to fall asleep, the risk of suicidal thoughts the next day increases by 6%, and that a reduction of one hour in total sleep time increases the likelihood of suicidal ideation by 43%.
It is not the first study to look at the risk of lack of sleep and suicide, but it is the first to study suicidal teens as young as 12 in an in-patient setting.
The researchers interviewed 29 adolescents, 12 to 18 years old, admitted to the inpatient psychiatric ward after a suicide attempt or after expressing suicidal intent within the previous month. They conducted objective and subjective sleep pattern assessments over ten consecutive days using a sleep diary.
Dr Amit Shalev, head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division at Hadassah, commented: “This is the highest risk group I can think of with certainty. We have those who have attempted suicide multiple times, and we are working with them in a highly guarded and closed ward. We can examine our interventions to see if they have an important thing to say about this specific population admitted to inpatient care."
Noting that sleep patterns have been linked to suicidality in adults but lack sufficient study in youth and acknowledging that suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 15-24, the researchers were keen to identify modifiable risk factors relevant to adolescents for suicide prevention.
Dr Shalev added: "The study's results illuminate the role of sleep as an immediate risk factor for suicide in adolescents. We believe that the benefits of treating sleep problems as a tool to reduce suicidal risk in sensitive populations should be rigorously examined."
The research emphasizes the critical interplay between sleep patterns and suicidal thoughts, highlighting both the time it takes to fall asleep and the total duration of sleep as significant risk factors in assessing suicide risk among adolescents. Furthermore, the study underscores the necessity of follow-up research to explore the potential of treating sleep disorders as a means to reduce suicide rates in this vulnerable population.
“The bottom line is that sleep is a very important target for monitoring as a proximal risk factor for suicidal youth,” says Shalev. “If I understand that suicidal youth do not sleep well, we can help them better.”