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Published on: October 24, 2019
Infant motor development predicts the dynamics of movement during sleep
Aaron DeMasi1,2, Melissa N Horger1,2,3, Anat Scher4
1Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, New York, USA.
Insights
Infants learning to walk experience disrupted sleep, with more walking practice leading to varied nighttime movements. This suggests motor skill development impacts infant sleep patterns and consolidation.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Neuroscience
- Sleep science
Background:
- Infant sleep patterns evolve significantly in the first year.
- Motor skill acquisition, particularly walking, can temporarily disrupt infant sleep.
- The relationship between locomotor experience and sleep-dependent movement is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how walking experience influences infant sleep and movement during sleep.
- To determine if walking acquisition predicts changes in sleep characteristics and nighttime physical activity.
- To explore the connection between motor skill consolidation and sleep-dependent processes.
Main Methods:
- Seventy-eight infants were monitored using actigraphy for sleep-related physical activity.
- Parental reports documented the age at which infants achieved independent walking.
- Sleep and movement data were analyzed in relation to walking experience milestones.
Main Results:
- Infants acquiring walking skills exhibited poorer sleep quality compared to age norms.
- Increased walking experience correlated with more sporadic nighttime movements.
- Greater walking experience was associated with a steeper hourly increase in physical activity during sleep.
Conclusions:
- The consolidation of gross motor skills, like walking, alters infant sleep movement patterns.
- Changes in nighttime movement during sleep may reflect movement-dependent memory consolidation.
- Locomotor experience plays a crucial role in shaping sleep characteristics during infancy.
Abstract:
The characteristics of infant sleep change over the first year. Generally, infants wake and move less at night as they grow older. However, acquisition of new motor skills leads to temporary increases in night waking and movement at night. Indeed, sleep-dependent movement at night is important for sensorimotor development. Nevertheless, little is known about how movement during sleep changes as infants accrue locomotor experience. The current study investigated whether infant sleep and movement during sleep were predicted by infants' walking experience. Seventy-eight infants wore an actigraph to measure physical activity during sleep. Parents reported when their infants first walked across a room >10 feet without stopping or falling. Infants in the midst of walking skill acquisition had worse sleep than an age-group estimate. Infants with more walk experience had more temporally sporadic movement during sleep and a steeper hourly increase in physical activity over the course of the night. Ongoing motor skill consolidation changes the characteristics of movement during sleep and may alter sleep state-dependent memory consolidation. We propose a model whereby changes in gross motor activity during night sleep reflect movement-dependent consolidation.
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