Nocturnal sleep found beneficial for infants (science daily) skills

PharmaLive.com (16 November 2010) - young children who receive most of their sleep the night perform better in an executive functioning children who sleep all night, a new study finds. Study of 60 children between the ages of 1-1/2-2, examined the habits of sleeping children and executive functioning, including the control of pulse and mental flexibility skills. The researchers found that children who sleep mostly at night did better on the tasks of the Executive function, including those involving the impulse control.

1 And 1-1/2 years old children who receive most of their sleep at night (as opposed to the day) do better in various fields of expertise than children who sleep all night.

This is the conclusion of a new longitudinal study conducted by researchers at the Université de Montréal and the University of Minnesota. Research appears in the November/December 2010 child development magazine number.

The study of 60 children at ages 1-1,1/2 and 2, examined the effects of sleeping infants on executive functioning. Executive functioning in children, includes the ability to control impulses, remember things and mental flexibility. Executive functioning develops rapidly between 1 and 6 years, but it is not known why some children are better than others to develop these skills.

"We have found that infants sleep is associated with cognitive functions that depend on brain structures developed rapidly in the first two years of life," says Annie Bernier, Professor of Psychology at the Université de Montréal, who led the study. "This may imply that good night sleep in childhood sets in motion a cascade of effects neurons which has an impact on Executive skills later."

When children were between the ages of 1 and 1-1/2 years, mothers filled with three-day sleep log which included time per hour daytime NAPs trends and nocturnal wakings. When children were 1-1/2 and 2, the researchers measured how children have skills with an executive functioning.

Children having obtained most of their sleep better at night on the tasks, especially those involving control impulse. The link between sleep and skills has remained, even after the researchers took into account such factors as education of parents and income and General cognitive skills of children. The number of infants awake at night time and the total time spent sleeping did not make the link between skills of Executive functioning of infants.

"These results add to previous research with children of school age, who have shown that sleep plays a role in the development of higher-order cognitive functions that involve prefrontal cortex of the brain," according to Bernier.

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Source of the story:

The story above is reproduced (with drafting adaptations by staff at PharmaLive.com) materials provided by the society for research on the development of the child by EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Reference of the review:

Annie Bernier, Stephanie M. Carlson, Stéphanie Bordeleau, Julie Carrier. Relations between physiological and cognitive regulatory systems: regulation of baby sleep and Executive after operation. Development of the child, 2010; 81 (6): 1739 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01507.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited for this.