Could an erratic sleep schedule be harming your mental health?

by University of California, San Francisco

edited by Swati Mestri, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

Swati Mestri

Scientific Editor

Meet our editorial team
Behind our editorial process

Andrew Zinin

Chief Editor

Meet our editorial team
Behind our editorial process Editors' notes

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

peer-reviewed publication

trusted source

proofread

The GIST Add to Preferred Sources

People with irregular sleep-wake schedules may experience more severe symptoms of anxiety, depression and even loneliness, according to a large study led by UC San Francisco and UC San Diego.

Although prior sleep research has largely focused on sleep duration and sleep quality, this study examined sleep regularity—how consistently people followed the same sleep-wake patterns each day—using months of data from wearables.

The study was published in Scientific Reports on Nov. 12.

"Regular sleep and wake times help keep circadian rhythms aligned," said senior author Ashley Mason of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "Irregular sleep-wake timing may weaken circadian alignment, which is associated with depression and other mental health disorders."

Irregular sleep schedules can also disrupt the timing of light exposure, meals, exercise and social activity, all of which help regulate the circadian rhythm, noted Mason, who is also affiliated with the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health.

In this study, researchers analyzed data from approximately 23,000 participants who were enrolled in TemPredict, a study launched in 2020 to investigate whether data from wearables could help identify COVID-19 before people recognized symptoms.

Participants contributed an average of 154 days of sleep data, which allowed researchers to examine sleep regularity over time. The researchers also created a "typical week" snapshot to compare their findings with previous, much shorter studies on sleep regularity. They discovered that associations between sleep and mental health were stronger with the longer-term data.

The participants' average age was 46, and just under half were women. They wore a smart ring that uses sensors to detect movement and measure vital signs. The smart ring used this data to estimate when they fell asleep and woke up. Researchers were then able to calculate each participant's sleep regularity index (SRI), ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more consistent sleep patterns.

Worsening depression, anxiety tied to progressive sleep irregularity

Participants' depression, anxiety and loneliness were assessed by a monthly self-reported survey. Overall, less regularly timed sleep correlated with greater depression and anxiety.

In the long-term analysis, participants with few symptoms of depression or none at all had an average SRI of 84, compared with 83 for those with mild depressive symptoms, 81 for moderate symptoms and 75 for severe symptoms.

Participants with normal levels of anxiety had an average SRI of 84, compared with 79 for those with severe anxiety. Participants with elevated loneliness also had less regular sleep-wake schedules.

"Someone with an SRI of 84 might go to bed and wake up roughly an hour earlier or later than the previous day, on average," said first author Severine Soltani, formerly of the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology graduate program at UC San Diego. "For someone with an SRI of 75, that shift in sleep schedule might be closer to an hour and a half."

Mason said the association between poor sleep and poor mental health could be bidirectional: Irregular sleep could also be explained as a symptom of poor mental health. "Other longitudinal research provides some reason to think that irregular sleep may come first and contribute to later poor health, rather than being solely a consequence of it."

The authors say future research should test whether helping people establish more regular sleep schedules can improve mental health.

Publication details

Scientific Reports (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-77545-y

Journal information: Scientific Reports

Clinical categories

Sleep medicinePsychiatryPsychology & Mental healthSleep & Recovery Provided by University of California, San Francisco Who's behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: Could an erratic sleep schedule be harming your mental health? (2026, November 12) retrieved 12 November 2026 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-11-erratic-mental-health.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.