Social timing influences sleep quality in patients with sleep disorders.

Objectives: We aimed to compare three variants of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI usual, work- and work-free days: PSQI, PSQI, PSQI) and to assess whether chronotype (MSF)/social jetlag (SJL) are associated with sleep quality in patients with sleep disorders (SD).

Methods: In sum, 431 SD patients and 338 subjects from the general population (GP) were included. Participants filled in three variants of the PSQI and the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ).

Alexithymia predicts maladaptive but not adaptive emotion regulation strategies in adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa or depression.

Background: Among adolescent girls, anorexia nervosa (AN) and major depression (MD) are common and often comorbid mental health problems. Both disorders are characterised by difficulties in recognising and verbalising (alexithymia) as well as regulating one's emotions, but research in adolescent patients is scarce and little is known about the relation between alexithymia and difficulties in emotion regulation. The aims of this study were to investigate alexithymia and emotion regulation skills in adolescents with AN, adolescents with MD, and healthy adolescents, and to determine whether alexithymia functions as a predictor for emotion regulation skills.

Time to rethink sleep quality: PSQI scores reflect sleep quality on workdays.

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is the most common measure of sleep quality. Its questions refer to "usual" sleep habits during the last month. Considering how different sleep-wake behavior can be between workdays and work-free days, we hypothesized that sleep quality should show similar differences.

Not later, but longer: sleep, chronotype and light exposure in adolescents with remitted depression compared to healthy controls.

The relationship between sleep and adolescent depression is much discussed, but still not fully understood. One important sleep variable is self-selected sleep timing, which is also referred to as chronotype. Chronotype is mostly regulated by the circadian clock that synchronises the internal time of the body with the external light dark cycle.

[Chronotype and depression in adolescents – a review].

Many patients with depressive disorders experience symptoms in relation to sleep behavior and daily rhythmicity. However, the multifaceted associations between sleep, depression and circadian rhythms are not fully understood. During the past years, the concept of chronotypehas become increasingly popular in research.