Sleep difficulties are associated with impaired executive functions (EFs) in school-aged children. However, much less is known about how sleep during infancy relates to EF in infants and toddlers. The aim of this study was to investigate whether parent-reported sleep patterns at 6 and 12 months were associated with their inhibitory control (IC) and working memory (WM) performances at 30 months.Peer reviewe

Eskola, Eeva

Fernandes, Michelle

Karlsson, Hasse

Karlsson, Linnea

Korja, Riikka

Morales-Muñoz, Isabel

Mäkelä, Tiina

Nolvi, Saara

Paavonen, E. Juulia

Sleep Science and Practice

English

Background: Sleep difficulties are associated with impaired
executive functions (EFs) in school-aged children. However, much less is known
about how sleep during infancy relates to EF in infants and toddlers. The aim
of this study was to investigate whether parent-reported sleep patterns at 6
and 12 months were associated with their inhibitory control (IC) and working
memory (WM) performances at 30 months. 

Methods: This study included children whose parents filled
in a sleep questionnaire at 6 or 12 months and who participated in the
development assessment at 30 months (initial available sample at 30 months; N =
472). The final sample comprised (a) 359 infants with IC task and sleep
questionnaire at 6 months and 322 toddlers at 12 months and (b) 364 infants
with WM task and sleep questionnaire at 6 months and 327 toddlers at 12 months.
Nighttime, daytime and total sleep duration, frequency of night awakenings,
time awake at night, and proportion of daytime sleep were assessed at 6 and 12
months using the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire. IC at 30 months was measured
using a modified version of the Snack Delay task, and WM was measured at 30
months using the Spin the Pots task. Further, children were divided into three
groups (i.e., “poor sleepers”, “intermediate sleepers”, and “good sleepers”)
based on percentile cut-offs (i.e., &lt;10th, 10th–90th and &gt;90th percentiles) to
obtain a comprehensive understanding of the direction and nature of the
associations between sleep and EF in early childhood. 

Results: Our results showed an inverted U-shaped association
between proportion of daytime sleep at 12 months and IC at 30 months,
indicating that average proportions of daytime sleep were longitudinally
associated with better IC performance. Furthermore, a linear relation between
time awake at night at 12 months and WM at 30 months was found, with more time
awake at night associating with worse WM. 

Conclusions: Our findings support the hypothesis that sleep
disruption in early childhood is associated with the development of later EF
and suggest that various sleep difficulties at 12 months distinctively affect
WM and IC in toddlers, possibly in a nonlinear manner. 

Keywords: Sleep, Inhibitory control, Working memory,
Infancy, Toddlers</p

Morales-Monoz, Isabel

Southampton (e-Prints Soton)

Sleep during infancy, inhibitory control and working memory in toddlers: findings from the FinnBrain cohort study.

Trepo - Institutional Repository of Tampere University

Sleep during infancy, inhibitory control and working memory in toddlers : findings from the FinnBrain cohort study

Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto

Sleep during infancy, inhibitory control and working memory in toddlers: findings from the FinnBrain cohort study

https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/10138/343562/1/s41606_021_00064_4.pdf

Sleep during infancy, inhibitory control and working memory in toddlers: findings from the FinnBrain cohort study

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