News Finding: When researchers from Stanford University of Medicine were examining sleeping patterns in adults over a 10 year-period, 20 participants out of the group of 420 unfortunately committed suicide.
Paper Finding: This demonstrates the importance of assessing disturbed sleep in the presence of other, well-established and robust risk factors for suicide.
News Context: This is not the first study, however, to link self-harming behaviors with lack of sleep. When researchers from Stanford University of Medicine were examining sleeping patterns in adults over a 10 year-period, 20 participants out of the group of 420 unfortunately committed suicide. Most surprisingly, though, was that this seemed to be the case despite a lack of history with depression for most of these participants.
Paper Context: Our results nevertheless indicated that the endorsement of higher depressive symptoms and sleep disturbances yielded greatest risk for death by suicide. This demonstrates the importance of assessing disturbed sleep in the presence of other, well-established and robust risk factors for suicide. The present study contributes to the extant literature in several ways.