Sleeping In on Weekends May Lower Depression Risk in Young Adults

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Depression, a condition currently affecting approximately 17% of adolescents and young adults, is a leading cause of disability among young people. Sleep habits play a powerful role in mental health.

Research published in Journal of Affective Disorders showed that “weekend catch-up sleep” (sleeping longer on weekends to make up for lost sleep during the week) may help offset the mental health effects of weekday sleep loss among people ages 16 to 24.

“Sleep researchers and clinicians have long recommended that adolescents get eight to 10 hours of sleep at a regular time every day of the week, but that’s just not practical for a lot of adolescents, or people generally,” said study co-author Melynda Casement, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist, associate professor in the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences and director of the university’s Sleep Lab.

A team of investigators analyzed data from 1,087 late adolescents and young adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2021 to 2023, a large, nationally representative U.S. health survey.

Participants reported their usual weekday and weekend bedtimes and wake times. Investigators then calculated whether participants got extra sleep on weekends compared with weekdays (weekend catch-up sleep).

Depression was defined as feeling “sad or depressed” every day, a marker of more persistent symptoms. The team used advanced statistical methods to account for factors that could influence both sleep and mood, including weekday sleep duration and timing, body mass index (BMI), age, sex and race/ethnicity.

During adolescence, teens’ internal body clocks shift, making it natural for them to fall asleep later at night. Most teenagers aren’t biologically ready to sleep until around 11 p.m. and ideally need to wake up closer to 8 a.m., which clashes with early high school start times. This mismatch is why many sleep experts and health professionals support later school start times to better align with teens’ natural sleep rhythms.

“Instead of being a morning lark, you’re going to become more of a night owl,” Casement explained. “And sleep onset keeps progressively delaying in adolescence until age 18 to 20. After that, you start becoming more morning larkish again.”

Results of the study were striking. Young people who got weekend catch-up sleep had a 41% lower risk of daily depressive symptoms compared with those who did not catch up on sleep.

In contrast, both too little sleep and too much sleep were linked to more than double the risk of daily depression (105%). Having a sleep schedule that was very early or very late (meaning a shifted sleep midpoint) was associated with an even higher increase in depression risk (130%).

The study also found that weight status mattered. Being overweight increased the risk of daily depressive symptoms by 92%, and obesity increased it by 112%, highlighting how sleep, mental health and metabolic health are closely connected.

Investigators noted that consistent, healthy weekday sleep duration and timing had even greater benefits for mood than weekend catch-up sleep alone. This suggests that while sleeping in on weekends may help reduce depressive symptoms, especially for young people who don’t get enough sleep during the week, it should not replace regular, healthy sleep habits.

The team emphasized that more research is needed to understand how best to balance weekend catch-up sleep with consistent sleep schedules for long-term mental health.

“It’s normal for teens to be night owls, so let them catch up on sleep on weekends if they can’t get enough sleep during the week, because that’s likely to be somewhat protective,” Casement concluded.