Sleep problems, anxiety, and depression are becoming increasingly common among younger populations. More importantly, why is it so difficult to improve these conditions? Researchers may have finally found a possible explanation for why it is challenging to escape this vicious cycle.
A new study from the University of Copenhagen has discovered that, rather than a single cause, a web of interconnected factors may be trapping young adults in this vicious cycle. The findings have been published in the journal BMC Medicine.
A Complex Web of Problems
The researchers at the University of Copenhagen found that the problems are far more complex than they initially appear. They examined how a range of biological, psychological, and social factors—such as stress, screen habits, and smoking—interact, and how these interactions may create self-reinforcing cycles that keep young adults in poor mental health.
“We know that poor sleep and depressive symptoms often go hand in hand, but with our mapping we now better understand how a range of other mechanisms may potentially keep the problem alive. This gives us a more nuanced picture of why it can be so hard for young people to break out of these self-reinforcing ‘vicious cycles’,” said Assistant Professor Jeroen Uleman from the Copenhagen Health Complexity Center, one of the researchers behind the new study, in a statement.
Their model identified 29 factors that influence one another in young adults aged 18 to 40. The model demonstrated how sleep problems can worsen depressive symptoms, which in turn affect sleep, and how factors such as stress, screen habits, physical activity, social relationships, nicotine use, and bodily inflammation may contribute to a wide range of self-reinforcing loops.
“Our model illustrates, for example, how smoking may potentially lead to depressive symptoms, and how these symptoms can disrupt your sleep. You may then smoke more to counter increasing fatigue, while nicotine affects your sleep quality, which again may worsen depressive symptoms. Other loops are even more complex,” Uleman explained.
According to Naja Hulvej Rod, Professor of Epidemiology and co-author of the study, this complexity is precisely what needs to be uncovered. “Instead of focusing only on single causes behind the growing sleep and mental health crises among young adults – such as smartphone use or how we structure our school system – our study shows that many factors are involved, and that these factors are tightly interwoven in a complex network that we need to understand in order to figure out how to break these self-reinforcing cycles,” she said.
Experts Identified Key Connections
The researchers worked with 14 experts from fields such as sleep research, psychology, sociology, epidemiology, and biology to build the model. These experts helped identify the important factors, how they are connected, and the scientific evidence behind those links. The team identified 175 causal connections between the individual factors and many thousands of potential self-reinforcing loops. However, these have not yet been tested through real-world studies, so more research is needed to fully understand their impact. The researchers also stressed that the model is not a complete explanation. Instead, it is a flexible, evolving tool. They also noted that the problem is complex, and solutions are not simple or quick.
