Trajectories of insomnia symptoms and insufficient sleep duration in early adolescents: associations with school stress.

We examined how adolescents' sleep patterns (i.e. insomnia symptoms and sleep duration) change from early- to mid-adolescence and whether adolescents follow different trajectories. Furthermore, we also examined the characteristics of adolescents within different trajectories, with a specific focus on the role of school-related stress. We used three longitudinal waves of questionnaire data collected annually from a sample of Swedish adolescents ( We found four trajectories for adolescents' insomnia symptoms; (1) low insomnia (69%), (2) low-increasing (17%, 'emerging risk-group'), (3) high-decreasing (9%), (4) high-increasing (5%; 'risk-group'). For sleep duration, we found two trajectories; (1) ~8 h sufficient-decreasing (85%), (2) ~7 h insufficient- decreasing (15%; 'risk-group'). Adolescents in risk-trajectories were more likely to be girls and consistently reported higher levels of school stress, particularly regarding school performance and attending school. School stress was prominent among adolescents suffering from persistent sleep problems, especially insomnia, and deserves further attention.

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© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Sleep Research Society.