Children's mental health is affected by sleep duration
February 4, 2020
Science Daily/University of Warwick
Depression, anxiety, impulsive behaviour and poor cognitive performance in children is affected by the amount of sleep they have, researchers from the University of Warwick have found.
Sleep states are active processes that support reorganisation of brain circuitry. This makes sleep especially important for children, whose brains are developing and reorganizing rapidly.
In the paper 'Sleep duration, brain structure, and psychiatric and cognitive problems in children,' published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, 11,000 children aged 9-11 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development dataset had the relationship between sleep duration and brain structure examined by researchers Professor Jianfeng Feng, Professor Edmund Rolls, Dr. Wei Cheng and colleagues from the University of Warwick's Department of Computer Science and Fudan University.
Measures of depression, anxiety, impulsive behaviour and poor cognitive performance in the children were associated with shorter sleep duration. Moreover, the depressive problems were associated with short sleep duration one year later.
Lower brain volume of brain areas involved the orbitofrontal cortex, prefrontal and temporal cortex, precuneus, and supramarginal gyrus was found to be associated with the shorter sleep duration by using big data analysis approach.
Professor Jianfeng Feng, from the University of Warwick's Department of Computer Science comments:
"The recommended amount of sleep for children 6 to 12 years of age is 9-12 hours. However, sleep disturbances are common among children and adolescents around the world due to the increasing demand on their time from school, increased screen time use, and sports and social activities.
A previous study showed that about 60% of adolescents in the United States receive less than eight hours of sleep on school nights.
"Our findings showed that the behaviour problems total score for children with less than 7 hours sleep was 53% higher on average and the cognitive total score was 7.8% lower on average than for children with 9-11 hours of sleep. It highlights the importance of enough sleep in both cognition and mental health in children."
Professor Edmund Rolls from the University of Warwick's Department of Computer Science also commented:
"These are important associations that have been identified between sleep duration in children, brain structure, and cognitive and mental health measures, but further research is needed to discover the underlying reasons for these relationships."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200204094726.htm
School-based sleep program may benefit adolescents
November 6, 2019
Science Daily/Wiley
A recent study uncovered potential long-term benefits of a school-based sleep education program for adolescents.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Sleep Research, included 3,622 adolescents, 286 in the intervention group and 3336 in the control group. Data were collected before the intervention and at a one-year follow-up.
The intervention consisted of five sessions, 50-60 minutes, once per week for six to seven weeks and was scheduled as part of students' school curriculum. Investigators divided participants into three groups according to baseline sleep duration: insufficient (less than seven hours), borderline (seven to eight hours) and adequate (more than eight hours). Adolescents in the intervention group were approximately two times less likely to report insufficient sleep at follow-up compared with controls. Sleep knowledge improved significantly in the intervention group but there were no changes in emotional sleep hygiene (such as bedtime worry) and perceived stress. Surprisingly, technology use increased and behavioral sleep hygiene worsened (for example, performing activities in bed that keep you awake) in the intervention group.
"These results are promising and mean that we might be able to prevent the development of sleep problems in youths," said lead author Serena V. Bauducco, PhD, of Örebro University, in Sweden. "More work needs to be done, however: we need to replicate these results and to understand what works. Therefore, we encourage future sleep intervention studies to investigate long-term outcomes -- after one year or even longer -- and to look for mechanisms of change."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191106085433.htm
Only half of US children get enough sleep during the week
October 25, 2019
Science Daily/American Academy of Pediatrics
Only 48% of school age children in the United States get 9 hours of sleep most weeknights, according to new research being presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2019 National Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans. Those who do, the study suggests, are significantly more likely to show a positive outlook toward school and other signs of "childhood flourishing," a measure of behavioral and social well-being.
An abstract of the study, "Sounding the Alarm on the Importance of Sleep: The Positive Impact of Sufficient Sleep on Childhood Flourishing," will be presented on Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
"Chronic sleep loss is a serious public health problem among children," said abstract author Hoi See Tsao, MD, FAAP. "Insufficient sleep among adolescent, for example, is associated with physical and mental health consequences including increased risk of depression and obesity and negative effects on mood, attention and academic performance."
"As healthcare providers, we want every child to reach his or her full potential, Dr. Tsao said. "Our research shows that children who get enough sleep are more likely to demonstrate measures of childhood flourishing in comparison to children with insufficient sleep."
Researchers analyzed responses from parents and caregivers of 49,050 children ranging in age from 6-17 years old in the combined 2016-2017 National Survey of Children's Health. They answered questions on how many hours of sleep a randomly selected child in their household slept on an average weeknight. For the study, sufficient sleep was defined as sleeping greater than or equal to 9 hours on an average weeknight.
For individual flourishing markers, the caregiver was asked if the child showed interest and curiosity in learning new things; cared about doing well in school; did required homework; worked to finish tasks started and stayed calm and in control when faced with a challenge. Prior research suggests that the more flourishing markers children have, the more likely they are to have healthy behaviors and fewer risky behaviors. A combined flourishing measure was created to identify children for whom caregivers felt met all five individual flourishing markers.
The researchers found that sufficient sleep, reported in 47.6% of the 6 to 17-year-old children, was positively associated with several individual flourishing markers, as well as the combined childhood flourishing measure. Compared with children who did not get 9 hours of sleep most weeknights, those who did had 44% increased odds of showing interest and curiosity in learning new things, 33% increased odds of doing all required homework; 28% increased odds of caring about doing well in school; 14% increased odds of working to finish tasks started, and 12% increased odds of demonstrating the combined flourishing measure.
The analysis adjusted for age, federal poverty level, time spent in front of a television, time spent with computers, cell phones, video games and other electronic devices, adverse childhood experiences (including abuse, neglect and other potentially traumatic experiences) and mental health conditions.
The researchers also identified risk factors associated with insufficient sleep, which included lower levels of parental or caregiver education, children living in families at lower federal poverty levels, increased duration of digital media usage, increased number of adverse childhood experiences and the presence of mental health conditions.
Dr. Tsao said the study reinforces the importance of increasing efforts to help children get the recommended amount of sleep for their age. She said efforts should especially focus on digital media usage, bedtime routines, the length of the school day and school start times.
"Interventions like these may help children demonstrate more measures of childhood flourishing, enhance their development and give them brighter futures," she said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191025075604.htm
Kids' sleep may suffer from moms' tight work schedules
October 15, 2018
Science Daily/Penn State
After studying the sleep habits of children from ages five to nine, researchers found that when mothers reported less flexibility in their work schedules, their children got less sleep. When they gained flexibility in their work schedules, their children slept more.
However, this link diminished when the researchers accounted for whether the children were given regular bedtime routines, suggesting consistent bedtimes may be the key to offsetting damage done by tight work schedules.
Orfeu Buxton, professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State, said the results give clues into how and why a parent's work schedule may affect their children's sleep.
"We've seen this link between inflexible work schedules and children's sleep patterns before, but we didn't know why it was happening," Buxton said. "Our results suggest that maybe it's about children not having a regular bedtime routine if their mother is working an inflexible job. We know positive routines especially are very important for positive child growth, so sleep may suffer if it's not there."
The researchers said the findings -- recently published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies -- also suggest that it could be helpful for employers to create policies that give employees more flexibility, both for the health of the employees and their children.
Soomi Lee, now an assistant professor at University of South Florida, who led the paper while a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State, said employers could begin by considering how to change both the structural and cultural practices that may hinder flexibility.
"If workplaces could improve employees' flexibility and control over when and where they work, that could be helpful," Lee said. "They could offer diverse flexible work options for employees, especially for working mothers, such as flextime, telecommuting, or job-sharing with another employee."
Buxton said the study gives parents with inflexible work schedules a way to possibly help their kids get more sleep.
"If parents can be there for their kids on a regular basis, and help them by having a regular bedtime routine, all of that's very beneficial for their long-term growth and development," Buxton said. "Children can be a delight to watch go to sleep. Perhaps you could start with a bath, then brushing teeth and reading books to create this sort of calm, together time as a family."
The researchers used data from 1,040 mothers and their children for the study. When the children were five and nine years old, their mothers were asked questions about how flexible they felt their jobs were. For example, if their "work schedule had enough flexibility to handle family needs."
At each time point, the mothers were also asked if their child had a regular bedtime, if their child had difficulty getting to sleep, and how many hours a night their child usually slept.
Buxton said it was important to measure how flexible the mothers thought their job schedules were, because some employers say their positions are flexible, but only ways that benefit the employer.
"Many adults, especially low-socioeconomic status workers who are single moms, are clock punching," Buxton said. "In many of these positions, people may be called in at the last minute, or sent home early after planning to be at work for a full day. Or, if they punch in five minutes late, they could get written up. These rigid environments are very flexible from the employer's perspective, but not at all useful to the employee."
After analyzing the data, the researchers found that overall, less workplace flexibility was associated with shorter child sleep time. An increase in workplace flexibility from when a mother's child was five to when he or she was nine was associated with children sticking to their bedtimes better and a 44 percent lower chance of the child having trouble getting to sleep.
Lee said that in addition to having implications for workplace practices, the findings also suggest ways healthcare workers can help families.
"Previous research has shown that early bedtime practices can have long-term influences on individual sleep," Lee said. "Clinicians and practitioners could consider speaking with working mothers about how to improve their children's bedtime routines. Future research could also continue to identify other modifiable factors linking parents' work and child sleep, so we can intervene to promote sleep health from childhood and to reduce future sleep health disparities."
Buxton and colleagues are continuing this research to the next study, in the transition to young adulthood, how sleep health trajectories may contribute to the emergence and persistence of modifiable disparities in sleep and well-being.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181015105448.htm
Limiting children's recreational screen time to less than two hours a day linked to better cognition
Only one in 20 US children met the full recommended guidelines on recreational screen time, physical activity and sleep
September 26, 2018
Science Daily/The Lancet
Limiting recreational screen time to less than two hours a day, and having sufficient sleep and physical activity is associated with improved cognition, compared with not meeting any recommendations, according to an observational study of more than 4,500 US children aged 8-11 years old.
Taken individually, limited screen time and improved sleep were associated with the strongest links to improved cognition, while physical activity may be more important for physical health.
However, only one in 20 US children aged between 8-11 years meet the three recommendations advised by the Canadian 24-hour Movement Guidelines to ensure good cognitive development -- 9-11 hours of sleep, less than two hours of recreational screen time, and at least an hour of physical activity every day.
The study found that US children spend an average of 3.6 hours a day engaged in recreational screen time.
The authors say that their findings indicate that adhering to the guidelines during childhood and adolescence, particularly for screen time, is important for cognitive development.
"Behaviours and day-to-day activities contribute to brain and cognitive development in children, and physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep might independently and collectively affect cognition," says Dr Jeremy Walsh, CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada. "Evidence suggests that good sleep and physical activity are associated with improved academic performance, while physical activity is also linked to better reaction time, attention, memory, and inhibition. The link between sedentary behaviours, like recreational screen time, is unclear as this research is in the early stages and it appears to vary depending on the types of screen-based activity."
In the study, data was analysed from 4,520 children from 20 sites across the USA. Children and parents completed questionnaires and measures at the outset of the trial to estimate the child's physical activity, sleep and screen time. Children also completed a cognition test, which assessed language abilities, episodic memory, executive function, attention, working memory and processing speed. The study controlled for household income, parental and child education, ethnicity, pubertal development, body mass index and whether the child had had a traumatic brain injury.
Almost one in three children (29% -- 1,330/4,520) met none of the guidelines, 41% (1,845/4,520) met only one, 25% (1,129/4,520) met two, and 5% (216/4,520) met all three recommendations.
Half of the children met the sleep recommendation (51%, 2,303/4,520), 37% (1,655/4,520 children) met the screen time recommendation, and 18% (793/4,520 children) met the physical activity recommendation.
The more individual recommendations the child met, the better their cognition. In addition, meeting only the screen time recommendation or both the screen time and sleep recommendations had the strongest associations with cognitive development.
Although there is substantial evidence for the association between physical activity and cognitive development, in this study meeting the physical activity recommendation alone showed no association with cognition. The authors note this was a surprising finding and may suggest that the measure used may not have been specific enough. They note that physical activity remains the most important behaviour for physical health outcomes, and there is no indication that it negatively affects cognition.
Dr Walsh concludes: "We found that more than two hours of recreational screen time in children was associated with poorer cognitive development. More research into the links between screen time and cognition is now needed, including studying the effect of different types of screen time, whether content is educational or entertainment, and whether it requires focus or involves multitasking. Based on our findings, paediatricians, parents, educators, and policymakers should promote limiting recreational screen time and prioritising healthy sleep routines throughout childhood and adolescence."
The authors note some limitations, including that their study is observational so cannot establish the underlying causes or the direction of the association. The data is also self-reported and could be subject to bias. The questionnaires were only used at the outset of the study, and so do not track how behaviours changed over time so future cycles of the study will need to be analysed to understand trends over time.
Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Eduardo Esteban Bustamante, University of Illinois, USA, says: "Through a stress-adaptation lens, the strong associations between global cognition and meeting the recreational screen time recommendation found by Walsh and colleagues potentially reflect the interruption of the stress-recovery cycle necessary for growth in children who do not meet the recommendation. Each minute spent on screens necessarily displaces a minute from sleep or cognitively challenging activities. In the case of evening screen use, this displacement may also be compounded by impairment of sleep quality. It is tempting to take solace in findings that cognitively challenging screen activities can benefit cognition, but, if given a choice, most children already consistently and predictably choose more stimulating screen activities over less stimulating ones."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180926192102.htm
Children with TBI have poorer sleep quality, more daytime sleepiness
June 8, 2015
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Children with traumatic brain injuries have poorer sleep and more daytime sleepiness in comparison to healthy children, new research confirms. The children with TBI also had impaired emotional, physical and social functioning when compared to healthy children.
Results show that children with TBI were more likely to experience greater daytime sleepiness, sleep disturbances and a poorer overall sleep quality. The children with TBI also had impaired emotional, physical and social functioning when compared to healthy children.
"We were surprised that children with a TBI experienced persistent increases in daytime sleepiness and decreases in sleep quality compared to healthy children," said principal investigator Kimberly Allen, PhD, RN, assistant professor, Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research, Department of Women Children and Family Health Science, at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented June 8, in Seattle, Washington, at SLEEP 2015, the 29th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.
The study group comprised 15 children with TBI and 15 healthy children, matched on age, race and maternal education level. Parents of children with TBI and parents of health children completed three surveys related to their child's sleep behaviors and sleep quality: Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), Child Sleep Wake Scale (CSWS), and th
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150608144143.htm
Study links sleep patterns with pain persistence after pediatric surgery
June 22, 2017
Science Daily/American Pain Society
About 20 percent of children develop persistent pain after surgery, and a new study showed that poorer night-time sleep quality was significantly associated with greater next-day pain intensity over four months after surgery.
Researchers from the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital studied 66 children who had major surgery and examined the longitudinal sleep patterns over four months to assess the relationship between daily sleep and pain. They hypothesized that poorer night-time sleep quality would be associated with greater pain intensity.
In adults, the role of sleep disruption is considered a relevant predictor of acute as well as chronic post-surgical pain. However, perioperative daily sleep patterns have not been longitudinally assessed in children, and the role of sleep in persistence of children’s pain after surgery has not been explored.
Results of the study showed, on average, children’s sleep duration and quality returned to baseline four months following surgery. But at the individual level, significant temporal relationships were found between daily sleep and pain.
“Poor sleep quality predicted greater subsequent pain intensity the next day and our findings suggest that poor sleep quality may continue to influence the experience of post-surgical pain in children even four months after surgery,” said lead author Jennifer Rabbits, MB, ChB, Department of Anesthesiology at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
The authors concluded that improving sleep quality could be an important factor to reduce post-surgical pain and improve surgical recovery time in children.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170622122754.htm