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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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Early childhood sleep quantity, but not caregiver-reported sleep problems, predicts impulse control in children at

Sarah E Nigro1, James Peugh1,2, Kimberly Yolton2,3

  • 1Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.

Child Neuropsychology : a Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence
|August 25, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Early childhood sleep duration is linked to later behavioral regulation. Shorter sleep across early years predicts poorer self-regulation in school-aged children, suggesting sleep

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Pediatric Sleep Medicine
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Short sleep duration and poor sleep quality in early childhood are associated with attention and impulse control deficits.
  • Understanding the long-term impact of early childhood sleep on neurobehavioral outcomes is crucial for child development.
  • Longitudinal studies are needed to establish predictive relationships between early sleep patterns and later executive functions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the longitudinal predictive value of sleep quantity and quality in early childhood.
  • To assess the impact of early sleep on objective and caregiver-reported measures of attention, impulse control, and executive function at age 8.
  • To examine the relationship between sleep patterns (intercept and slope) and neurobehavioral functioning in school-aged children.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a pregnancy and birth cohort.
  • Collected caregiver-reported sleep data at ages 2, 2.5, 3, 4, and 5 years for 410 participants.
  • Employed longitudinal growth curve models to analyze early childhood sleep patterns and predict neurobehavioral outcomes at age 8.

Main Results:

  • Sleep duration slope (decline over time) was not a significant predictor of any outcome at age 8.
  • Children with less decline in sleep duration showed fewer impulsive errors on a continuous performance test (adjusted p=.013).
  • Shorter sleep duration across early childhood predicted poorer caregiver-reported behavioral regulation at age 8 (adjusted p=.043).

Conclusions:

  • Total sleep time in early childhood is a significant predictor of behavioral regulation difficulties in school-aged children.
  • Inadequate sleep during early childhood may contribute to or be a marker for underdeveloped self-regulatory skills.
  • While sleep problems did not predict all outcomes, the association with behavioral regulation highlights sleep's importance for development.

Keywords:
Sleepattentionbehavior regulationexecutive functionsimpulsivity

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