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Sleep and cognitive functioning in childhood: Ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sex as moderators
Lauren E Philbrook1, J Benjamin Hinnant1, Lori Elmore-Staton1
1Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Sleep Science
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Childhood sleep is crucial for cognitive development.
- Previous research indicates sleep impacts cognition, but moderators are understudied.
- Individual differences in sleep-cognition associations require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate sleep at age 9 as a predictor of cognitive performance trajectories from ages 9 to 11.
- To examine race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and sex as moderators of sleep-cognition associations.
- To understand how sleep quality and duration influence cognitive development in children.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study with 282 children assessed annually from age 9.
- Objective sleep measurement using actigraphy for duration and efficiency.
- Cognitive abilities assessed using the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ III).
Main Results:
- Higher sleep efficiency, not duration, correlated with better cognitive performance overall.
- African American (AA) children and boys with lower sleep efficiency showed poorer cognitive outcomes.
- These disparities in cognitive functioning emerged by age 11 and were maintained.
Conclusions:
- Lower sleep efficiency may negatively impact cognitive functioning, particularly for AA children and boys.
- Vulnerabilities related to sleep efficiency appear early and persist through development.
- Individual differences, including race/ethnicity and sex, are critical for understanding sleep-cognition links in children.
Abstract:
We examined children's sleep at age 9 as a predictor of developmental trajectories of cognitive performance from ages 9 to 11 years. The effects of sleep on cognition are not uniform and thus we tested race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and sex as moderators of these associations. At the first assessment, 282 children aged 9.44 years (52% boys, 65% European American [EA], 35% African American [AA]) participated. Two more waves of data collection spaced 1 year apart followed. The majority of children (63%) were living at or below the poverty line. Children's sleep was measured objectively with actigraphy and 2 well-established sleep parameters were derived: duration, indexed by sleep minutes between sleep onset and wake time, and quality, indexed by efficiency. Multiple cognitive functioning domains were examined with the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ III). Across the sample, higher sleep efficiency, but not duration, was associated with better cognitive performance. Significant moderation effects emerged. Controlling for SES, AA children scored lower on general intellectual ability and working memory (WM) at age 11 only if they experienced lower sleep efficiency at age 9. Further, boys scored lower on general abilities and processing speed (PS) at age 11 only if their sleep efficiency was lower at age 9. Findings indicate that lower sleep efficiency may contribute to lower cognitive functioning especially for AA children and boys. These vulnerabilities appear to emerge early in development and are maintained over time. Results underscore the importance of individual differences in explicating relations between sleep and children's cognitive performance. (PsycINFO Database Record