Sleep is an active brain process that contributes to an efficient execution of everyday tasks. The biological features of sleep start to undergo intense changes during childhood and adolescence. These biological features may conflict with schedules and environmental changes, and lead to sleep-phase delays that may influence the performance of cognitive processes essential for learning during school years, visuo-spatial perception, working memory, and attention, for example. This study examines the literature discussing the relation between sleep and cognitive processes in children and pre-adolescents. The papers indicate an association between sleep and cognitive performance, sleep changes compromising intelligence, as well as visuo-spatial skills and other cognitive processes; but, there might be other factors involved, such as socioeconomic status. This review discusses the findings, drawing attention to areas of disagreement as well as agreement.
Estudantes de graduação possuem altas chances de apresentar Sonolência Diurna Excessiva, devido aos horários escolares e às demandas acadêmicas. Por isso, pretendeu-se analisar níveis de sonolência de estudantes de turnos distintos. O universo foi constituído por 109 graduandos do turno matutino e 125 do noturno. Utilizou-se a Escala de Sonolência de Epworth. A amostra apresentou média total de 9,38 (DP=4,03), sendo 9,03 (DP=4,01) para o turno matutino e 9,7 (DP=3,93) para o noturno. Foram detectadas diferenças significativas nos níveis de sonolência entre turnos (η² =0,10;p < 0,00), e entre os indivíduos do gênero masculino e feminino nos dois turnos (η²=0,45; p<0,00). Assim, deve ser considerado o papel das demandas acadêmicas em cada turno, já que elas afetam diretamente a qualidade do sono.
The relation between the sleep and the visuospatial skills was evaluated in 31 students from a public school. For the analysis of sleep, the parents of volunteers answered a sleep evaluation questionnaire and the sleep diary. The visuospatial performance was evaluated by Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III), through the subtest Picture Completion, the Perceptual Organization Index and the Performance IQ Scale. In accordance with the results, 72% of the students presented regular sleep and good sleep length. The visuospatial performance was deficient in subtest Picture Completion for 56% of the students, and on the Performance IQ Scale for 60% of the students. Significant correlations were verified between early sleep onset (rho = -0.40, p < 0.05) and regular sleep (rho = -0.39, p < 0.05) with the visuospatial performance. It was concluded that sleeping early and having a regular sleep may contribute to a better visuospatial performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.