Quantitative survey on French teenagers' sleep: Insomnia, anxiety-depression and circadian rhythms

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that particularly affects teenagers. Its psychic and physical consequences are major and make it a public health priority. The main purpose of the study was to provide contemporary data on adolescent sleep and to explore the intrications between insomnia and mood disorders while investigating the chronotype responsibility. A battery of questionnaires was offered to 1,036 French teenagers, enrolled in secondary school, aged between 12 and 20 years old and living in urban areas for middle school students and in rural areas for high school students. It was mainly composed of the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the - Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ). The authorities responsible for ethics and professional conduct have issued a favorable opinion. This study demonstrated that anxiety, depression, gender and age were factors linked to insomnia, reaffirming a female predisposition and asserting a high school entry effect (especially at 15 years old). The results also indicated that a tendency to vesperality increased the risk and the level of insomnia, thus evoking the responsibility of circadian typologies in this sleep disorder. This study underlines the importance of prevention and screening for insomnia when entering high school, as well as the need, in sleep disorder clinics and in psychotherapy, to deal with individual circadian rhythms, their consequences and organizational choices in the sleep/wakefulness articulation.