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Measuring Neural Mechanisms Underlying Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation During Naps in Early Childhood
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Measuring Neural Mechanisms Underlying Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation During Naps in Early Childhood

Published on: October 2, 2019

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Novel mechanisms, treatments, and outcome measures in childhood sleep

Annalisa Colonna1, Anna B Smith1, Deb K Pal2

  • 1Department of Basic and Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London , London, UK.

Frontiers in Psychology
|June 2, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Rising sleep issues in children and adolescents can be monitored using new technology. Animated games may offer objective ways to assess sleep quality and its impact on learning.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Sleep Medicine

Background:

  • Sleep disorders and insufficient sleep are increasing, especially in children and adolescents.
  • Sleep disruption exacerbates difficulties for children with medical conditions.
  • Emerging research links sleep quality to learning and cognitive performance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore non-drug interventions for improving sleep architecture and cognitive function.
  • To evaluate novel, technology-based methods for measuring sleep quality and its effects.
  • To assess the potential of portable computing for clinical and educational applications.

Main Methods:

  • Investigating animated hand-held games with embedded sleep-dependent learning tasks.
  • Utilizing portable computing technology as a tool for indirect sleep quality assessment.
  • Focusing on state-of-the-art outcome measurement tools for sleep interventions.

Main Results:

  • Animated games offer a promising method for measuring overnight learning changes.
  • Portable computing technology presents practical, inexpensive, and reliable sleep assessment tools.
  • These tools can indirectly monitor sleep quality and its impact on learning.

Conclusions:

  • Innovative non-drug interventions show potential for improving sleep and cognition.
  • Technology-based tools can objectively measure the effects of sleep disruption on learning.
  • This approach could revolutionize chronic disease management by monitoring sleep's role.

Keywords:
learningmemoryoutcome measurepediatric cognitionsleepsleep treatments

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