Late-night teens 'face greater depression risk'

Going to bed earlier protects teenagers against depression and suicidal thoughts, New York research suggests.

Of 15,500 12 to 18-year-olds studied, those who went to bed after midnight were 24% more likely to have depression than those who went before 2200.

And those who slept fewer than five hours a night had a 71% higher risk of depression than those who slept eight hours, the journal Sleep reports.

It is estimated 80,000 UK children and young people have depression.

The researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York looked at data from 15,500 teenagers collected in the 1990s.

One in 15 of those studied were found to have depression.

As well as the higher risk of depression, those who were set a bedtime by their parents of after midnight were 20% more likely to think about suicide than those whose bedtime was 2200 or earlier.

Those who had less than five hours sleep a night were thought to have a 48% higher risk of suicidal thoughts compared with those who had eight hours of sleep.

Teenagers who reported they "usually get enough sleep" were 65% less likely to be depressed.

Depression and suicidal thoughts were also more likely in girls, older teenagers and in those who had a lower self-perception of how much parents care about them.

Most of the parents of the adolescents in the study set a bedtime of 2200 or earlier.

A quarter set a bedtime of 2400 or later.

On average the teenagers were having seven hours and 53 minutes sleep a night - less than the nine hours recommended at that age.

Study leader Dr James Gangwisch said although it it was possible that youngsters with depression struggle to sleep, the fact that parental set bedtimes were linked with depression suggests that a lack of sleep is somehow underpinning the development of the condition.

He said a lack of sleep could affect emotional brain responses and lead to moodiness that hindered the ability to cope with daily stresses.

This moodiness could affect judgment, concentration and impulse control.

Regular exercise

"Adequate quality sleep could therefore be a preventative measure against depression and a treatment for depression," he added.

Sarah Brennan, chief executive at the mental health charity YoungMinds, said: "Enough sleep, good food and regular exercise are all essential to stay emotionally healthy.

"Nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer with depression, yet we are still failing to provide our young people with the help and support to cope with it and prevent it.

"Providing parents with information about how to look after your body, for example by getting enough sleep, and how to get help if they are worried about their teenager, will ensure problems are tackled early and prevent serious mental health conditions such as depression."

Midwest US states face fresh blizzards

A severe winter storm in the US that has seen record amounts of snow fall is set to continue, forecasts say.

Blizzard warnings are still in place for parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

The storm has already dumped 14in (35cm) in Oklahoma City - 11.5in more than the previous record snowfall.

Icy roads had been blamed for at least 21 deaths since the storm hit a few days ago.

Drivers in Minnesota reported brief white-out (zero visibility) conditions, and while some managed to continue to their destinations, others were stuck either in their cars or accommodation as the snow made roads impassable.

In Texas, volunteer fire-fighters and sheriff's deputies rescued hundreds of people stranded along Interstate 44 and Texas State Highway 287 near Wichita Falls.

Thirteen inches of snow fell in the area, a National Weather Service meteorologist said

"It's really been horrible," Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said.

"Although we live in north Texas and get a lot of cold weather, we weren't prepared for the significant amount of snow that we've received."

Interstate roads were also closed in North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Snow drifts and strong winds could cause further whiteouts, meteorologists warned.

Flights were cancelled, including at Sioux Falls Regional Airport, Rapid City Regional Airport and Pierre Regional Airport.

The Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma's largest airport, was not expected to fully reopen for another two to three days.

National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Kraujalis said the strong winds were producing snow drifts as deep as 5ft.

"It's awful, it's just awful," he told AP news agency.

"It's a big workout just walking outside to check my weather equipment."

Perfect face dimensions measured

Scientists believe they have worked out the dimensions of the most attractive female face.

They say the key to the ideal arrangement of female facial features is the measurements between the eyes, mouth and ears.

Applying their results, the Canadian pop singer Shania Twain was rated as having the perfect visage.

The study, led by the University of Toronto, appears in the journal Vision Research.

The researchers asked students to rate the attractiveness of colour photographs of the same woman's face, laid out side by side.

Using photoshop, the researchers altered the vertical distance between the eyes and mouth, and the horizontal distance between the eyes in each image.

The features themselves never changed, just the distance between them, and the woman's face was only compared to her own.

Following a series of experiments, the researchers came up with the most attractive length and width ratios between features.

On length, the distance between a woman's eyes and mouth should be just over a third or 36%, of the overall length of her face, from hairline to chin.

For width, they calculated that the space between a woman's pupils should be just under half, or 46%, of the width of her face from ear to ear.

Average face

Fortunately, the researchers calculated that these ratios correspond to an average face.

The researchers said women who did not fit the "perfect dimensions" had no need to resort to extreme measures, such as plastic surgery.

They said hairstyles could be used in effect to create an optical illusion.

Lead researcher Professor Kang Lee said the face of actress and renowned beauty Angelina Jolie did not fit the golden ratio either for length or width.

British actress Elizabeth Hurley scored on the golden ratio for length, and just missed out the width measurement.

Both were eclipsed by Shania Twain, 44, whose hits include Man! I Feel Like a Woman!

The results suggest her face has a perfect set of geometric measurements.

However, the study looked only at white women, and the researchers admit their findings could not be applied to other groups.

Professor David Perrett, of the perception lab at St Andrew's University, said the physical dimensions of a face provided a lot of clues about the health and fertility of the owner.

He said men tended to be attracted to female faces that were young and feminine - probably because they suggested heightened fertility.

But he said the distance between features was probably less important than the appearance of the features themselves.

For instance, a man was likely to be attracted by big eyes, rather than by the fact that they were a certain distance apart.