Sleep problems in preteens increase risk of suicidal thoughts two years later, study finds

A new study involving Colorado researchers found that sleep problems among preteens increase their risk of suicidal thoughts two years later, though the researchers urged parents not to panic.

Suicide rates among children between 8 and 12 increased roughly 8% each year from 2008 to 2022, according to the National Institutes of Health. Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a youth mental health emergency in 2021, though the most recent survey data suggests some improvement, at least among teens.

The study used data from a larger project that had asked parents of 8,800 kids about their children’s sleep when the kids were 9 or 10 years old, then followed up two years later to see who had developed thoughts of suicide or made a suicide attempt. About 91% of kids reported no suicidal thoughts, while 8% had suicidal ideation and fewer than 1% made an attempt.

While the majority of kids with sleep problems didn’t report suicidal thoughts or attempts, the odds they would increased with worse sleep disruption. Kids who had “severe” sleep disturbances had more than twice the risk of those with “minimal” disruption. The connection was even more significant for children who had nightmares almost every time they slept.

The connection remained even after controlling for whether kids had symptoms of anxiety or depression, lived in high-conflict homes, or had close relatives with depression, all of which are risk factors for thoughts of suicide, said Josh Gowin, an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and one of the authors.

They don’t know why nightmares in particular had a strong connection to suicidal thoughts and behavior, but kids who are more prone to them might have more stressors in life or brain wiring that makes them go into fight-or-flight mode more easily, said Dr. Joel Stoddard, a psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital Colorado who is also an author on the study.

Most kids who have sleep problems won’t harm themselves, but establishing that sleep disturbance is a risk factor will allow for earlier intervention, since parents are more likely to notice and discuss it with a doctor than to bring up that their child might be depressed, Stoddard said. That would create an opportunity to talk about treatment options and locking up weapons so kids can’t harm themselves in a bad moment, he said.

“It’s easier to see (disrupted sleep) than the internal state of the child,” Gowin added. “It’s also easier to talk about.”

Parents should bring up any sleep problems with their child’s primary care doctor, since poor sleep also has other negative effects, Stoddard said. In some cases, just changing bedtime habits will be enough to fix the problem, though some kids need more treatment, he said.

“There are so many different reasons that people have disrupted sleep,” he said.

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