When you can't sleep it off: the relationship between insomnia and depression in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents

Recent data by the NIMH suggest that an estimated 13.3% of the US population ages 12 to 17 years have had at least 1 episode of MDD. It is well-established that one of the core symptoms in adolescent MDD is sleep disturbance, including daytime sleepiness and insomnia. In addition, studies of adolescent sleep patterns have reported that the prevalence of insomnia in adolescents is as high as 23.8%, and a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies demonstrated that sleep disturbance is one of the primary risk factors for depression. Despite this, many of the studies looking at the relationship between insomnia and depression have been completed in the outpatient setting. Our study plans to contribute information to the literature by examining the relationship between insomnia and depression in adolescents on an inpatient psychiatric unit.