How Well a Baby Sleeps Affects the Development of Key Brain Functions

Both chil­dren and adults need a good night sleep to func­tion at their best. A recent study, sum­ma­rized here, sug­gests that this is true for babies too: How much sleep a 12 month old baby gets can influ­ence the devel­op­ment of his/her exec­u­tive func­tions. Exec­u­tive func­tions, sup­port­ed by the frontal lobes of the brain, are often con­sid­ered as indi­ca­tors of children’s like­li­hood of suc­ceed­ing in school. They involve deci­sion-mak­ing, prob­lem-solv­ing, plan­ning, inhibit­ing, as well as oth­er high-lev­el func­tions (social behav­ior, emo­tional con­trol, work­ing mem­ory, etc.).

Researchers asked par­ents to com­plete three-day sleep jour­nals when their infants were 12 and 18 months.[…] three vari­ables were iden­ti­fied: total hours of sleep, per­cent­age of total sleep occur­ring between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and sleep fragmentation.

When the chil­dren reached 18 and 26 months of age, researchers gave the tod­dlers a bat­tery of tests to assess their exec­u­tive func­tions and gen­er­al cog­ni­tive ability.

Chil­dren with a high­er per­cent­age of sleep dur­ing the night were fur­ther along in the devel­op­ment of their exec­u­tive functioning

Com­ments: Inter­est­ing results! Let’s note though that the study is report­ing cor­re­la­tions. Although the authors report that the results held “above fam­i­ly socioe­co­nom­ic sta­tus, pri­or men­tal devel­op­ment and con­cur­rent ver­bal abil­i­ty” the pos­si­bil­i­ty that a fac­tor oth­er than sleep may have been influ­enc­ing the devel­op­ment of exec­u­tive func­tions in these chil­dren can­not be com­plete­ly ruled out. The direc­tion of a cor­re­la­tion is nev­er clear either: It could be that chil­dren with high­er exec­u­tive func­tions (in par­tic­u­lar impulse con­trol) are bet­ter able to fall asleep and thus get more sleep than chil­dren with low­er exec­u­tive functions.

Relat­ed arti­cle: Top 10 Q&A about Child’s Brain Development