Riya Baibhawi

For most parents, if their child has trouble sleeping, they may try some tricks and at most, talk to them. However, a majority of them often leave the issue unattended, hoping their child will grow out of it. A new study, however, suggests that sleep problems could increase the risk of suicide in adulthood. The research published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open stated that having severe sleep disturbances at age 10 was linked with having a 2.7 times higher risk for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts two years later.

"Given that sleep is highly visible as a risk factor, non-stigmatizing, and highly treatable... we suggest the study of sleep as a risk factor and critical intervention target for youth suicide," said senior study author Dr Rebecca Bernert, who is also a suicidologist and founder of the Stanford Suicide Prevention Research Laboratory in California.

For the study, researchers observed over 8,800 children recruited by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study at 21 sites across the United States when they were 9 or 10 years old. At that time, guardians answered questionnaires about their child's sleep health, which included factors such as problems with falling or staying asleep, waking up, excessive sleepiness, sleep-disorder breathing, excessive sweating during sleep, and behaviours that occur when someone partially awakes from a deep sleep. The guardians also completed forms about their child's anxiety or depression symptoms. To rule out the impact of genetics, researchers also obtained details on the children's family history of depression, family conflict and parental monitoring.

The researchers discovered that when the children were ages 11 or 12, 91.3% of them hadn't experienced suicidal thoughts or attempts within the two years since the first data collection. However, among those who did, high and severe sleep disturbances were linked with greater odds of ideation and attempts. This led them to conclude that sleep could serve as an important risk factor when it comes to suicide and self-harm. Interestingly, they also discovered that having daily nightmares was associated with a five times higher risk of suicidal behaviours.

Why Is Chronic Sleep Disturbance Linked To Suicide?

Health experts state that problems with sleep, and lack of sleep—which too much stress, activities, schoolwork and yes, screen time, all contribute to — interfere with brain development on a number of levels, particularly mood, anxiety and emotion regulation. A study, published in Sleep Science in 2022, stated that sleep problems and sleep deprivation are associated with a decrease of functional emotion-regulating behaviour and impaired emotion generation. On the other hand, prolonged sleep enhances better mood and affect states, positive emotion expression, and faster sensory processing in response to emotional stimuli. 

Therefore, if you see your child struggling to sleep, it is advisable to reach out to a healthcare professional at the earliest.

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For most parents, if their child has trouble sleeping, they may try some tricks and at most, talk to them. However, a majority of them often leave the issue unattended, hoping their child will grow out of it. A new study, however, suggests that sleep problems could increase the risk of suicide in adulthood. The research published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open stated that having severe sleep disturbances at age 10 was linked with having a 2.7 times higher risk for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts two years later."Given that sleep is highly visible as a risk factor, non-stigmatizing, and highly treatable... we suggest the study of sleep as a risk factor and critical intervention target for youth suicide," said senior study author Dr Rebecca Bernert, who is also a suicidologist and founder of the Stanford Suicide Prevention Research Laboratory in California.For the study, researchers observed over 8,800 children recruited by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study at 21 sites across the United States when they were 9 or 10 years old. At that time, guardians answered questionnaires about their child's sleep health, which included factors such as problems with falling or staying asleep, waking up, excessive sleepiness, sleep-disorder breathing, excessive sweating during sleep, and behaviours that occur when someone partially awakes from a deep sleep. The guardians also completed forms about their child's anxiety or depression symptoms. To rule out the impact of genetics, researchers also obtained details on the children's family history of depression, family conflict and parental monitoring.The researchers discovered that when the children were ages 11 or 12, 91.3% of them hadn't experienced suicidal thoughts or attempts within the two years since the first data collection. However, among those who did, high and severe sleep disturbances were linked with greater odds of ideation and attempts. This led them to conclude that sleep could serve as an important risk factor when it comes to suicide and self-harm. Interestingly, they also discovered that having daily nightmares was associated with a five times higher risk of suicidal behaviours.Why Is Chronic Sleep Disturbance Linked To Suicide?Health experts state that problems with sleep, and lack of sleep—which too much stress, activities, schoolwork and yes, screen time, all contribute to — interfere with brain development on a number of levels, particularly mood, anxiety and emotion regulation. A study, published in Sleep Science in 2022, stated that sleep problems and sleep deprivation are associated with a decrease of functional emotion-regulating behaviour and impaired emotion generation. On the other hand, prolonged sleep enhances better mood and affect states, positive emotion expression, and faster sensory processing in response to emotional stimuli. Therefore, if you see your child struggling to sleep, it is advisable to reach out to a healthcare professional at the earliest.