Sleep and Inflammation During Adolescence

Abstract

Objective To investigate the associations between objective and subjective dimensions of adolescent sleep and C-reactive protein (CRP), a key biomarker of inflammation that predicts chronic health problems in adulthood, and whether the associations vary as a function of adolescents’ age. Methods A total of 315 adolescents (14.5–18.4 years) wore wrist actigraphs at night in order to objectively estimate their sleep duration and variability across nights, and completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess their subjective sleep quality. CRP levels were assayed from dried blood spots obtained from finger pricks. To control for adiposity, age- and sex-specific BMI percentiles were obtained from height and weight measurements. Results Nightly variability in sleep duration was associated with higher levels of CRP (b = .13, p = .045). Shorter average sleep duration was associated with higher CRP, but only among younger adolescents (b = −.11, p = .041). Subjective sleep quality was not associated with CRP. Conclusions The association of sleep with inflammation during adolescence appears more evident in objective dimensions of sleep duration and variability than in the subjective dimensions of sleep quality. Insufficient sleep may be particularly consequential for younger adolescents.

Developmental trends in sleep during adolescents' transition to young adulthood

“…During the phone conversation, the staff obtained verbal consent and scheduled a visit for families who confirmed their wish to participate in the study. Written consents were obtained during the first visit, which took place in Previously-published papers from this project have examined the link between sleep and inflammation [6], HPA-axis functioning [27], mood [28], discrimination [29] and family stress [30], using data from only the first wave of the study during high school.…”

“…In accordance with past studies, if event markers were not present for a particular night, adolescents' daily self-reports were used to identify the time at which they went to bed and got up in the morning. Sleep statistics for each night were calculated using one-minute epochs and the Sadeh actigraph scoring algorithm, which has been validated and used in studies with children and adolescents [6,[31][32][33]. Sleep onset time was the first of at least three consecutive minutes of sleep, and sleep offset time was the time of the last five or more consecutive minutes of sleep [6,31].…”

“…Poor sleep during adolescence has been linked to poor decision-making, risk-taking, mood disruptions, and lower academic performance [2][3][4][5]. Additionally, adolescents' poor sleep has been associated with higher levels of chronic inflammation predictive of adult cardiovascular problems [6,7] and lower white matter integrity in adolescents' brains a year later, indicating consequences of poor sleep on the brain development [4]. Despite burgeoning research suggesting that poor sleep during adolescence poses negative developmental and health consequences, basic developmental trajectories of sleep during adolescents' transition to young adulthood remain poorly understood.…”

“…Another strength of actigraphy is its ability to capture multiple dimensions of sleep to provide a comprehensive understanding of developmental sleep trends. Based on past research linking sleep with developmental outcomes, longer duration generally indicates better sleep DEVELOPMENTAL TRENDS IN SLEEP 4 during adolescence [3,6]. Higher efficiency indicates better sleep, as it suggests less disturbance during the course of one's sleep [10].…”

“…Higher efficiency indicates better sleep, as it suggests less disturbance during the course of one's sleep [10]. Lower variability in sleep duration across nights indicates more consistent, better sleep [6,23]. Latency is conceptually a less clear dimension, as short latency may signal tiredness and sleep deprivation [24], whereas long latency may indicate difficulty falling asleep in bed [20,25].…”