The primary aim of this study was to compare the sleep macroarchitecture of children and adolescents whose mothers have a history of depression with children and adolescents whose mothers do not.

Polysomnography (PSG) and Holter electroencephalogram (EEG) were used to compare the sleep architecture of 35 children whose mothers had at least one previous depressive episode (19 boys, aged 4–18 years, “high-risk” group) and 25 controls (13 males, aged 4–18 years, “low-risk” group) whose mothers had never had a depressive episode. The total sleep time, wakefulness after sleep onset (WASO), sleep latency, sleep efficiency, number of awakenings per hour of sleep, percentages of time spent in each sleep stage, rapid eye movement (REM) latency and the depressive symptoms of participants were measured.

In children (4–12 years old), the high-risk group exhibited significantly more depressive symptoms than controls (P = 0.02). However, PSG parameters were not significantly different between high-risk children and controls. In adolescents (13–18 years old), the high-risk subjects presented with significantly more depressive symptoms (P = 0.003), a significant increase in WASO (P = 0.019) and a significant decrease in sleep efficiency compared to controls (P = 0.009).

This study shows that children and adolescents born from mothers with a history of at least one depressive episode had significantly more depressive symptoms than controls. However, only high-risk adolescents presented with concurrent alterations of sleep macroarchitecture.