Scientists from University College London (UCL) found that people who sleep less than five hours a night may be 2.5 times more at risk of developing depression compared to those who sleep five to eight hours. The research was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
The authors used genetic and health data from 7,146 participants in the ELSA study conducted in England. The average age of the participants was 65 years. It has been found that people who sleep five hours or less a night are 2.5 times more likely to suffer from depression. The researchers adjusted for education, wealth, smoking status, physical activity and chronic diseases.
Using genetic data allowed scientists to rule out environmental influences (such as social and financial factors) on the results. Thus, scientists found that people with mutations associated with a predisposition to short sleep (less than five hours per night) were more likely to report symptoms of depression. This suggests that there is a cause-effect relationship between depression and short sleep.
However, genetic predisposition to depression did not increase the likelihood of getting 5 hours of sleep. This means that the reduction in sleep time causes depression rather than being a symptom of it.
existed before named Habits to prevent depression.