Browsing by Author "Vuorela, Anna"

Aims. Sleep is very important for brain maturation in adolescence. However, the youth doesn’t often sleep enough. In adolescence evening preference in circadian rhythm becomes more common. This evening-type chronotype is often inconsistent with environment, such as early school mornings. In the long run this can lead into sleep deprivation which can then lead into low vitality, deficits in attention sustaining or some health problems for example. Also, evening-chronotype is associated with lower vitality, depressive and anxiety symptoms or health issues in adolescence. In adolescence it is also common to have unsteadiness of emotions. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between circadian rhythm and chronotype, vitality and emotions in adolescence. Additionally, the differences between genders in chronotype are also examined. Methods. 329 16–19-years old adolescents (69.9% girls) participated in the study for a week. The data used was from a Finnish cohort study SleepHelsinki!. The circadian rhythm and chronotype were assessed with actigraphy. Vitality and emotions were assessed three times in a day with a mobile application PsyMate™ which is based on Experience Sampling Method. The associations were examined with linear mixed models. Results and conclusions. In adolescence the circadian rhythm of girls is on average earlier than boys. Daytime low vitality is associated with less positive and more negative emotions in the same day. The association between low vitality and less positive emotions gets more intense as the study goes further. Chronotype as a continuous variable is not associated with daytime emotions or vitality in adolescence. Chronotype that is divided into three same sized groups is associated with daytime vitality as earlier chronotype is associated with lower daytime vitality. In adolescence the association between vitality and emotions should be paid attention to more, because vitality is something you might influence on with enough sleep. Guaranteeing higher vitality can also in the long run prevent mental health disorders since higher vitality could help stabilize emotions.