Relations between sleep patterns early in life and brain development: A review

Lokhandwala, Sanna; Spencer, Rebecca M. C.

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101130

“…Electroencephalography (EEG) is the gold standard for assessing brain activity during sleep, a special state of body and mind. Emerging evidence suggests that sleep actively contributes to brain's maturational processes including cortical plasticity critically shaping cognitive development (reviewed in 12 ). Sleep EEG coherence, a widely used measure of functional connectivity in sleep research, increases during childhood and adolescence, with most pronounced changes in the delta and sigma bands 13,14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sleeping Brain’s Connectivity and Family Environment: Characterizing Sleep EEG Coherence in an Infant Cohort

Markovic

¹

,

Schoch²,

Huber

³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Brain connectivity closely reflects brain function and behavior. Sleep EEG coherence, a measure of brain’s connectivity during sleep, undergoes pronounced changes across development under the influence of environmental factors. Yet, the determinants of the developing brain’s sleep EEG coherence from the child’s family environment remain unknown. After characterizing high-density sleep EEG coherence in 31 healthy 6-month-old infants by detecting strongly synchronized clusters through a data-driven approach, we examined the association of sleep EEG coherence from these clusters with factors from the infant’s family environment. Clusters with greatest coherence were observed over the frontal lobe. Higher delta coherence over the left frontal cortex was found in infants sleeping in their parents’ room, while infants sleeping in a room shared with their sibling(s) showed greater delta coherence over the central parts of the frontal cortex, suggesting a link between local brain connectivity and co-sleeping. Finally, lower occipital delta coherence was associated with maternal anxiety regarding their infant’s sleep. These interesting links between sleep EEG coherence and family factors have the potential to serve in early health interventions as a new set of targets from the child’s immediate environment.

show abstract

“…Emerging evidence suggests that sleep actively contributes to brain’s maturational processes including cortical plasticity critically shaping cognitive development (reviewed in Ref. 12 ). Sleep EEG coherence, a widely used measure of functional connectivity in sleep research, increases during childhood and adolescence, with most pronounced changes in the delta and sigma bands 13 , 14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sleeping brain’s connectivity and family environment: characterizing sleep EEG coherence in an infant cohort

Markovic

¹

,

Schoch

²

,

Huber

³

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Brain connectivity closely reflects brain function and behavior. Sleep EEG coherence, a measure of brain’s connectivity during sleep, undergoes pronounced changes across development under the influence of environmental factors. Yet, the determinants of the developing brain’s sleep EEG coherence from the child’s family environment remain unknown. After characterizing high-density sleep EEG coherence in 31 healthy 6-month-old infants by detecting strongly synchronized clusters through a data-driven approach, we examined the association of sleep EEG coherence from these clusters with factors from the infant’s family environment. Clusters with greatest coherence were observed over the frontal lobe. Higher delta coherence over the left frontal cortex was found in infants sleeping in their parents’ room, while infants sleeping in a room shared with their sibling(s) showed greater delta coherence over the central parts of the frontal cortex, suggesting a link between local brain connectivity and co-sleeping. Finally, lower occipital delta coherence was associated with maternal anxiety regarding their infant’s sleep. These interesting links between sleep EEG coherence and family factors have the potential to serve in early health interventions as a new set of targets from the child’s immediate environment.

show abstract

“…It is well established that the experience of adversity in early childhood has a strong and enduring impact on health and well‐being across the lifespan (Felitti et al, 1998; Petruccelli et al, 2019). One of the hallmark signs of exposure to adversity and traumatic stress is disrupted sleep (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), which can, in turn, impact neurodevelopment (Lokhandwala & Spencer, 2022), and cardiovascular and metabolic functioning (Altman et al, 2012; Itani et al, 2017). Many children with FASD have experienced inconsistent caregiving and lived in households where they have had exposure to parental mental health and substance use problems (Flannigan et al, 2021; Kambeitz et al, 2019; Mukherjee et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the impacts of childhood adversity on sleep problems in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: A comparison of cumulative and dimensional approaches

Chandler‐Mather

¹

,

Betts

²

,

Donovan

³

et al. 2023

Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundThe developmental impacts of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and postnatal exposure to adversity are typically considered in isolation. However, both contribute independently to sleep problems. Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have PAE and significant sleep disturbances. What is not clear is the relative contribution to these disturbances of exposure to early life adversity. This study examined how exposure to such adversity impacts frequent insomnia symptoms and nightmares in children with FASD and “At Risk” designations.MethodsWe compared two approaches to modeling adversity in children who had undergone a diagnostic assessment for FASD: a cumulative risk approach that sums adversities to create a total score and an approach that treats exposure to threat and deprivation as independent dimensions. Data on caregiver‐reported exposure to adversity and sleep problems for 63 children (aged 3 years 4 months to 7 years 8 months) were extracted from clinical archives. Cumulative risk, threat exposure, and deprivation exposure scores were computed and were tested as predictors of insomnia symptoms and nightmares. All analyses controlled for age and gender.ResultsThere were high rates of caregiver‐reported sleep problems with 60.3% (n = 38) of children having nightmares and 44.4% (n = 28) having a frequent insomnia symptom. The cumulative risk analysis showed that for every additional exposure to adversity, the odds of having a caregiver‐reported insomnia symptom increased by 38%. The dimensional analysis showed no relationship between deprivation and sleep problems. However, every additional exposure to threat increased the odds of nightmares by 93%.ConclusionsExposure to postnatal adversity contributes to sleep disturbances in children with FASD, with unique roles for cumulative risk and the threat dimension of adversity. The implications of these findings for the etiology and treatment of sleep disturbances in children with FASD are discussed.

show abstract

Relations between sleep patterns early in life and brain development: A review

Cited by 39 publications

References 107 publications

The Sleeping Brain’s Connectivity and Family Environment: Characterizing Sleep EEG Coherence in an Infant Cohort

The Sleeping Brain’s Connectivity and Family Environment: Characterizing Sleep EEG Coherence in an Infant Cohort

The sleeping brain’s connectivity and family environment: characterizing sleep EEG coherence in an infant cohort

Understanding the impacts of childhood adversity on sleep problems in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: A comparison of cumulative and dimensional approaches

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About