Objective: The prospective, bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbance and depressed mood was assessed in a school-based sample of adolescents.
Method: One hundred and thirty-eight Australian adolescents (mean age time 1 =15.69, standard deviation =0.92; 64% male) completed questionnaires to assess sleep parameters and depressed mood, on two occasions over 1 year.
Results: Cross-sectional associations were observed between depressed mood and sleep duration, as well as wakefulness in bed. Prospective analyses revealed depressed mood predicted less total sleep time on school nights and a longer latency to sleep onset on weekends 1 year later. There was no prospective support for sleep predicting later depressed mood.
Conclusion: Contrary to prediction, our results suggest in this case that depressed mood may act as a precursor to poor sleep rather than the converse.
Keywords: adolescence; depressive symptoms; prospective; school-based; sleep disturbance.