A Developmentally Informed Study of Sleep and Circadian Polygenic Scores in Adolescence

Do genetic variants that are associated with adult sleep/circadian phenotypes influence sleep phenotypes in adolescents?In a population-based birth cohort study (N = 3903), genetic influences on all adult sleep phenotypes (sleep duration, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, napping, and chronotype as indexed by polygenic scores derived from adult genome-wide association studies) were associated with their corresponding sleep/circadian phenotypes in adolescents aged 15 years.Genetic variants identified in adult genome-wide association studies may also be relevant to a variety of sleep phenotypes in adolescence, suggesting that these variants index sleep phenotypes during a key developmental stage in which sleep disturbances typically emerge.

Corresponding Author: Katie J. S. Lewis, PhD, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Hadyn Ellis Building, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, United Kingdom (lewisk18@cardiff.ac.uk).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.