Relationship between sleep quality, chronotype, and depression in youth: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aims: In today’s electronic age, the frequency of both poor sleep quality and the evening chronotype are increasing and are associated with numerous adverse physical and mental health outcomes. This study was conducted on a group of healthy Turkish youth aged 18-24 years to determine whether there are any potential associations between sleep quality, chronotype, and depression. Methods: In this cross-sectional study involving healthy youth, we utilized the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to evaluate sleep quality, chronotype, and depression. Results: The study analyzed 165 youths with a mean age of 21.9±1.6 years (77.6% were females). Overall, 84% of the study participants (PSQI mean score: 7.4±3.0) exceeded accepted thresholds for poor sleep quality, whereas 35.7% (BDI mean score: 16.3±11) exceeded thresholds for depression. The participants were categorized into the following chronotypes: morning (n=19, 11.5%), intermediate (n=109, 66.1%), and evening (n=37, 22.4%) types. Poor sleep quality and eveningness were positively associated with depression (p=0.033 and p=0.012, respectively). Mediation analysis showed that sleep quality acted as a mediator in the relationship between chronotype and depression (β=-0.003, p=0.011). Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated a significant association between poor sleep quality, evening chronotype, and an increased likelihood of depression among Turkish youth. © 2024 The Author. Published by Galenos Publishing House on behalf of University of Health Sciences Türkiye, Gülhane Faculty of Medicine. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) International License.