Sleep and mental health: exploring the life course association and biosocial mechanisms in a Brazilian birth Cohort

Unhealthy sleep and early-life adversity during childhood and adolescence might trigger long-lasting deleterious effects on people´s mental health. There is evidence to support that sleep affects mental health. Few studies investigate this relationship across the lifecourse using a biosocial perspective. I aim to investigate the association between sleep and mental health throughout development, considering genetic mechanisms and potential interactions between sleep genetics and stress (evaluated as self-report and cortisol concentration). I intent to use data from 4231 participants from the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study. Self-reported early-life adversity and sleep information was collected since age 12-months old. Mental disorders were evaluated using The Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) since participants were 6 yrs, when sleep-actigraphy information and saliva samples (for DNA extraction) were also collected. Cortisol will be extracted from hair samples collected at 15-years. The next assessments are due at 18-years. I intent to collect young adult data to address the gap in our knowledge about sleep and mental health across the lifespan. Additional information about causality in sleep-mental health association, critical/sensitive periods shifting these health outcomes during the lifespan, biological mechanisms and sleep-polygenic components and environmental interaction leading to mental health will be provide by this proposal.