Psychotic-Like Experiences and Sleep Disturbances in Early Adolescence: A Network Analysis

Abstract

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and sleep disturbances often co-occur in adolescence. While research has begun to examine individual symptom–symptom associations, the structure of these relationships remains to be fully characterized. This study employed network analysis to examine the conditional cross-sectional associations between sleep disturbances and PLE symptoms in early adolescence using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study ( N  = 4,748). Difficulties initiating sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness, dissociative experiences, and hallucinations were central to the network. Daytime sleepiness and dissociation functioned as bridges between domains, highlighting their role in both the overall network structure and comorbidity. PLEs were more prevalent, t (3,997.8) = 8.16, p  < .05, and more distressing, t (3,567.3) = 9.16, p  < .05, in females, but the overall network structure did not significantly differ by sex ( p  > .05). We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these relationships and suggest daytime somnolence and dissociative symptoms as potential targets for confirmatory analyses and development of future intervention studies in adolescence.