ABSTRACT
Objectives: Eveningness is a circadian tendency characterized by a behavioral preference for later sleep and wake timing. It is common in adolescents and is linked with higher risk for mental health disorders. The goal of this session is to enable clinicians to appreciate and address evening preferences of young people with mental health disorders as a means to improve their sleep and mental health. Method(s): This presentation will include an updated literature review and discussion of empirical studies. Result(s): Reut Gruber, PhD, will briefly introduce key concepts related to the associations between mental health disorders and evening preference. Helen Burgess, PhD, will then present the results of the first study of the impact of heavy drinking on light sensitivity and explain their impact on sleep timing. Next, speakers will focus on empirical findings from studies examining the impact of innovative interventions targeting adolescents' eveningness. Lauren Asarnow, PhD, will present findings from clinical studies in which reducing adolescents' eveningness using the Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention led to depression improvement in adolescents with an evening circadian preference and MDD. Jaime Zeitzer, PhD, will present findings from studies using passive phototherapy, which involves exposing adolescents to sequences of brief light flashes during sleep to advance the timing of the circadian clock and thereby extend sleep duration. Finally, Robert Levitan, MD, will then extract practical and clinical implications from the above discussions and from his own clinical research in order to guide clinicians aiming to assess and treat comorbid circadian issues in order to optimize mental health care. Conclusion(s): Circadian misalignment is common in adolescents and increases their risk of mental health disorders. Societal changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic have led already-delayed adolescents to be even more prone to extreme eveningness, exacerbating a worrisome and potentially dangerous public health issue affecting those with mental health disorders. This research Symposium will focus on explaining the interrelationship between circadian processes and mental health disorders and will provide practical foundations to support and guide the assessment and treatment of adolescents' evening preferences. SLP, ADOL, DEV Copyright © 2022
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve internationally, increasing levels of psychological stress in adolescents around the world, and thereby increasing their risk for emotional disorders associated with chronic stress. This ongoing threat to adolescents mental health requires that we identify factors that contribute to their ability to cope with situations shown to carry significant risks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., their resiliency).Negative emotions are associated with chronic stress, and factors that reduce levels of negative emotions are associated with improved resiliency. Healthier sleep is associated with lower levels of negative emotions. Cognitive reappraisal (changing the way one thinks about potentially emotioneliciting events) is an emotional regulation strategy that downregulates negative emotions. However, there is little information about the associations between sleep quality, emotional regulation, and resiliency in adolescents. The present study sought to fill this gap by examining the associations between adolescents sleep quality and disturbances, emotional regulation strategies and adolescents resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Forty-five adolescents (M=13.47, SD=1.7 years) participated in the study during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada (May 15 to June 30, 2020). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to assess adolescents self-reported sleep quality and disturbances. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire was used to assess respondents' tendencies to regulate their emotions using cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was used to measure resilience. Behavioral/emotional problems were assessed before the pandemic using the Youth Self Report (YSR). Results: Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses revealed that lower levels of sleep disturbances and frequent use of cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotions were associated with a higher level of resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic, above and beyond the contributions of gender or pre-pandemic emotional or behavioral problems. Conclusion: Better sleep quality and the habitual use of an emotional regulation strategy that is effective in downregulating negative emotions are associated with higher resiliency in adolescents facing the COVID-19 pandemic. The cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow the inference of causation.