Nap time: Adolescent napping patterns and associations with sleep problems and mental health

Adolescents are at increased risk of insufficient and ill-timed sleep, with widespread effects on health and functioning. However, little is known about napping and mental health correlates in adolescence. We sought to describe napping behaviours, to examine associations between napping, mental health, and wellbeing, and whether sleep problems helped explain any relationships found. This study included data from 26,373 students (typical age: 11–18 years) who participated in the 2023 OxWell Student Survey. Correlational and multivariable regression analyses were conducted to explore associations between long daytime napping (> 1hr), evening napping (after 6pm) (measured on ASHS-r), sleep problems (SCI-02), anxiety and depression symptoms (RCADS-11), hallucination-like experiences, paranoia (B-CAP), and wellbeing (SWEMWBS). Approximately 45% of young people had taken long daytime naps and 34% had taken evening naps during the past month. More frequent naps correlated with higher levels of sleep problems, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, hallucination-like experiences, paranoia, and lower wellbeing. In regression models, napping predicted worse mental health and wellbeing. When added in the model, sleep problems (SCI-02 total scores) emerged as a stronger predictor with a marked increase in explained variance. Furthermore, moderated regression models revealed that napping was more strongly associated with anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and wellbeing for those outside cutoff than those with probable insomnia (SCI-02 ≤ 2). Our findings indicate that excessive napping is distinctly associated with young people’s mental health and wellbeing, although sleep quality is more strongly associated. It is therefore important to consider napping alongside sleep in relation to psychological health.