The results, published in JAMA Psychiatry, were based on data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which includes records of 12,394 children aged 6 months to 7 years and 3,889 children aged 24 years.
While the study found a strong link between lack of sleep in childhood and psychosis in early adulthood, the team has not proven a causal relationship and needs to explore other factors associated with both childhood sleep and psychosis.
For example, the team looked at overall immune system health in children to see whether impairments in the immune system might also account for some of the relationship between sleep loss and psychosis.
This was tested by measuring inflammation levels in blood samples at the age of nine. The results showed that a weakened immune system may partially explain the relationship between sleep loss and psychosis, but other unknown factors are also likely to be important.