Study: Teens need 8.5 hours of sleep to counter depression

Teenagers should sleep for more than eight hours a night to lower the risks of depression and anxiety, according to a recent study.

Tsukasa Sasaki, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education, and other researchers studied the living habits and psychological conditions of about 18,000 students attending public junior or senior high schools in Mie and Kochi prefectures.

“Our research showed that teenagers should sleep for around eight-and-a-half hours on average,” Sasaki said, adding that there are variations between individuals. “We hope the research results will be well-utilized by parents and other adults for health instructions.”

The students were asked about their ability to concentrate, what they lived for, their stress levels and other factors. After grouping the subjects by sleeping hours on weekdays, the researchers reviewed the degree of depression-like symptoms for each group.

The results showed that boys who sleep from eight-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half hours on average are at the lowest risk of depression.

For girls, those least likely to suffer from depression sleep one hour shorter than boys on average.

Overall, girls had less sleep than boys and were more likely to have depression-like conditions or feel anxiety, according to the study.

“More research is needed to determine whether girls require less sleeping time than boys to prevent depression. It is reasonable to assume that girls need to sleep as long as boys,” Sasaki said.

(ASAHI SHIMBUN)