Anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance have been shown to affect biological health by dysregulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, immune system, and vasculature of the heart, which may worsen psychological health and medical issues. Previous research has shown that sleep may serve as a mediating factor between psychological and medical disease, suggesting that treatment for sleep may reverse or even prevent future adverse psychobiological health outcomes. This project is the first to investigate the neuroendocrine, immune, and cardiovascular benefits of sleep among an at-risk for depression adolescent sample within a longitudinal, randomized control trial investigating the effectiveness of a 7-week mindfulness-based sleep intervention. Participants (n = 144) were adolescents aged 12–18 who endorsed sleep and anxiety issues, known risk factors for depression onset. Participants were randomized into either a 7-week mindfulness-based sleep intervention or a 7-week study skills (active control) intervention. At both pre-intervention (T1) and two-year post-intervention follow-up (T2) time points (currently ongoing until January 2017), participants provided 6 saliva samples across two days to measure salivary biomarkers of stress and inflammation including cortisol and C-Reactive Protein (CRP), and were assessed via a cardiovascular health test measuring blood pressure, heart rate variance, and endothelial functioning, objective and subjective measures of sleep including Actigraphy and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) as well as other mood questionnaires, and a semi-structured diagnostic clinical diagnostic interview. We expect a series of independent samples t-tests and ANOVA results will show an improvement among participants in the sleep intervention group from T1 to T2 in neuroendocrine, immune, and cardiovascular measures as compared to their baseline levels, as well as to participants in the control group, and that these improvements will be mediated by the degree of improvement across objective and subjective measures of sleep. This research will improve our understanding of the biologically protective nature of sleep, inform clinical treatment decisions, and serve as an accessible sleep treatment option for at-risk adolescents while simultaneously improving psychobiological health and possibly preventing future medical complications. The project is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-funded grant (APP1027076).
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