Childhood sleep health and epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses

<p><strong>Aim:</strong> Investigate if childhood measures of sleep health are associated with epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence.</p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> Parent-reported sleep trajectories from age 5 to 17, self-reported sleep problems at age 17, and six measures of epigenetic age acceleration at age 17 were studied in 1,192 young Australians from the Raine Study Gen2.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> There was no evidence for a relationship between the parent-reported sleep trajectories and epigenetic age acceleration (p ≥ .17). There was a positive cross-sectional relationship between self-reported sleep problem score and intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration at age 17 (b = 0.14, p = .04), which was attenuated after controlling for depressive symptom score at the same age (b = 0.08, p = .34). Follow-up analyses suggested this finding may represent greater overtiredness and intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration in adolescents with higher depressive symptoms.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> There was no evidence for a relationship between self- or parent-reported sleep health and epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence after adjusting for depressive symptoms. Mental health should be considered as a potential confounding variable in future research on sleep and epigenetic age acceleration, particularly if subjective measures of sleep are used.</p>