Abstract Introduction Social jetlag (SJL), defined as the discrepancy between weekday and weekend midsleep timing, is associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms in adults and adolescents. However, this association has not been studied in childhood. Here, we examined the relationship between SJL and depression and anxiety symptoms in children. We hypothesized that symptoms of depression and anxiety would increase with greater SJL magnitude. Methods Data were analyzed for children 2.0-11.9 years (M = 5.76 ± 3.38 years, 48.7% females) from the NIH Environmental Influence on Child Health Outcome (ECHO) study collected between 2018-2021. Caregivers completed the ECHO Child Sleep Health Questionnaire, the ECHO PROMIS Depression 8a Questionnaire, the ECHO PROMIS Anxiety 8a Questionnaire, and demographic questionnaires. Depression data were available for 2230 children and anxiety data were available for 650 children. SJL was calculated as the weekend-weekday difference in nocturnal midsleep timing, with weekend midsleep corrected for sleep extension due to a weekday sleep debt. Results Logistic regression was used to examine the association between social jetlag ( 30 min, 31-60 min, and 60 min) and the presence of mild or greater depressive symptoms. Mild or greater depressive symptoms increased across SJL categories (≤ 30 min: 20%; 31–60 min: 23%; 60 min: 29%). After adjusting for covariates, children with SJL 60 minutes had higher odds of mild or greater depressive symptoms relative to children with SJL ≤ 30 minutes, (OR = 1.719; p .001, 95% CI 1.303, 2.389). SJL was not associated with mild or greater anxiety symptoms. Conclusion Across early and middle childhood, greater SJL was related to increased reports of depressive symptoms, consistent with findings in adults and adolescents These results suggest that SJL may represent a risk factor for depression in childhood. Targeted interventions to regulate sleep-wake timing in young children, particularly those with a predisposition for depression or later sleep timing, may help to reduce risk. Support (if any)
Gerber et al. (Fri,) studied this question.