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Parental Insomnia Can Harm Adolescent Children
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Even more troubling, almost 17 percent of children with parents who had insomnia reported suicidal ideation (thoughts and behavior), 9.5 percent reported suicide plans, and 9.5 percent reported actual suicide attempts during the past year. This compared to 5.3 percent, 1.5 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, of teens whose parents did not suffer from insomnia.
"We have known just in the last year or so that having insomnia makes that individual at high risk for major depression later in life, but this is, to my knowledge, the first time we've looked at offspring and realized we have a significant problem," Arand said.
A second study also reported at the meeting showed an association between sleeping problems and suicidal behavior in children and adolescents with depressive disorders.
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Researchers at Sao Paulo University in Brazil found that 83.8 percent of children and adolescents in the study, all of whom had bipolar or unipolar disorder, had sleep disturbances. There was a strong link between sleep disturbances and suicidal behavior.
Experts recommend that adolescents get nine hours of sleep a night and that younger, school-aged children get 10 to 11 hours every evening.
More information
Visit the American Academy of Sleep Medicine for more on insomnia.
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Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 6/12/2008
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SOURCES: Donna Arand, Ph.D., spokeswoman, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and clinical director, Kettering Sleep Disorders Center, Dayton, Ohio; Xianchen Liu, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh Medical School; June 12, 2008, presentations, Associated Professional Sleep Societies annual meeting, Baltimore
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