Catch-Up Sleep on Weekends May Affect Anxiety Symptoms in Teens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Healio.

Moderate sleep on the weekends as compensation for a lack of sleep during weekdays may have beneficial effects on anxiety in youth, research presented at SLEEP showed.

Sojeong Kim, a doctoral candidate in the department of clinical psychology and psychology graduate advisor at the University of Oregon, told Healio the relationship between catch-up sleep and mental health outcomes “was nonlinear — we observed a U-shaped pattern, where both minimal and excessive weekend catch-up sleep were linked to higher anxiety levels.”

In the study, also published in Sleep, Kim and colleagues assessed how weekend catch-up sleep (WCS) affected internalizing symptoms among 1,877 adolescents (mean age, 13.5 years) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study.

The researchers reported that adolescents with fewer than 2 hours of WCS showed fewer internalizing symptoms — specifically anxiety — vs. those with no WCS.

Meanwhile, WCS of 2 or more hours was associated with a slight increase in internalizing symptoms.

Source: Healio
https://www.healio.com/news/primary-care/20250707/catchup-sleep-on-weekends-may-affect-anxiety-symptoms-in-teens