The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) recently hosted a symposium during its Biennial Meeting at which researchers considered the effects of sleep on adolescents. All of the papers that were presented looked at day-to-day variation in adolescents’ sleep by using daily diaries, and considered how sleep patterns are related not only to concurrent well-being but also to outcomes later in development.

Among the questions that were addressed:

  • How do nightly variations in teenagers’ sleep affect their experiences the following day? In turn, do daily experiences one day affect sleep the next night?
  • What are the delayed effects of sleep (or lack of sleep)? For example, does insufficient sleep in 1 year lead to problems in later years?
  • Does sleep affect such important outcomes as how well teens do in school, their emotions, physiological markers of stress, or symptoms of depression and anxiety differently as adolescents grow older?

The symposium took place in the Palais des Congrès (Convention Center) de Montréal, on April 1.