Suicidal ideation was linked with poor sleep in a study of about 5000 young adults, reports Healio.

To determine if objective and subjective measures of disturbed sleep predicted risk for suicidal ideation in young adults, researchers conducted a longitudinal study among 4,847 individuals aged 18 to 23 years. Fifty participants were prescreened from a university undergraduate research pool due to suicide attempt history and recent suicidal ideation.

Mean actigraphy values indicated 78% of the cohort reported insomnia and 36% reported nightmares.

When controlling for baseline suicidal and depressive symptoms, actigraphic and subjective sleep measures predicted suicidal ideation at 7- and 21-day follow-up (< .001).

Specifically, variability in sleep timing, insomnia and nightmares predicted increases in suicidal ideation (< .05)

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