0692 AGE AND GENDER DIFFERENCES AND CORRELATES OF MORNING-EVENINGNESS AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) is an abnormal delay of major sleep period in relationship to the desired clock time often thought to originate in adolescence. A delay of sleep has been reported for teenagers in many countries across several continents, but inconsistent results are reported regarding gender differences in sleep pattern timing. We investigated the morningness/eveningness preferences of adolescents in Pakistan and its consequences on mood and functioning level. One thousand Pakistani adolescent students from private schools (Age range: 8–20; mean age: 14.9 years, SD: 1.49; 497 girls) participated in the study. They completed Children’s Morningness-Eveningness Preferences (CMEP) scale,(Carskadon 1993) and Short Mood and Feeling Questionnaire (SMFQ) (Angold and Costello 1987). Information about demographics, sleep habits, bedtime routine, and absences from school in the last month were obtained. We also collected information about presence or absence of cell phones, video games and television use in bedrooms. Mean CMEP scores were 29.78 (5.53) with 17.2% of the sample falling in the evening category, 39.8% in the morning category and 43% in neither category. Analysis of variance was used to compare grouping variables on CMEP scores. Males had significantly higher scores (greater morningness) than females (31.4 (5.2) vs 28.1 (5.4), [F(1,966=97.78), p <.001]. Examining CMEP categories, we found 65.1% of those in the Evening category were females whereas 67.3% of those in the Morning category were males (χ2=78.3, p<.001). Greater proportion of those in the evening category had cell phones (87%) compared to neither (79.3%) and morning (77.1%). Video games presence in the bedroom (F(1,970)=16.14, p=.017) and habitual snoring was associated with eveningness. There were more school absences (last month) in the evening category (2.25) vs (1.31) in the morning or neither category,F(2,970)=6.32, p=.002. One difference between our data and most samples from North America and Europe is that the tendency for eveningness was greater in girls than boys. In addition, the association of eveningness with cell phone and video game availability was notable. Eveningness was also coupled to more school absences reported in the last month. N/A.