February 25, 2021

Sen Lab Connects Irregular Sleep to Bad Moods and Depression

Yu Fang, MNI Research Specialist, used advanced wearable technology to study the behavioral and physiological factors of mental health and found that sleep consistency is an under appreciated contributor to wellness. The work is published in npj Digital Medicine

An irregular sleep schedule can increase a person’s risk of depression over the long term as much as getting fewer hours of sleep overall, or staying up late most nights, a new study suggests.

Even when it comes to just their mood the next day, people whose waking time varies from day to day may find themselves in as much of a foul mood as those who stayed up extra late the night before, or got up extra early that morning, the study shows.

The study, conducted by a team from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center, uses data from direct measurements of the sleep and mood of more than 2,100 early-career physicians over one year. It’s published in npj Digital Medicine.