naps and brain development

Parents Shouldn't Worry About Their Baby's Inconsistent Sleep Patterns, Child Sleep Problems Associated With Impaired Academic and Psychosocial Functioning, Day-Time Naps Help Us Acquire Information Not Consciously Perceived, Study Finds. A new study adds another possible benefit to this already impressive list and just might finally convince hard-charging entrepreneurs to slow down and take the occasional daytime snooze. Neuroscientists have long known that shut-eye helps consolidate memories in adults. One theory is that short naps assist with sleep deprivation individuals may be experiencing. A startling conclusion about naps and brain aging. It's a question many parents no doubt ponder and one that a University of Massachusetts Amherst sleep scientist has been considering for years. Taking a short nap during the day may help to protect the brain's health as it ages, researchers have suggested after finding that the practice appears to be associated with larger . Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! A new study by University of Massachusetts-Amherst sleep scientist Rebecca Spencer, PhD, and Tracy Riggins, PhD, a University of Maryland child psychologist specializing in memory development, shows us its not about the number, but rather the childs brain development.At some point, we transition out of napping, Dr. Spencer says. But researchers dont know what these subregions are doing in infants and kids. A Power Nap a Day May Keep Brain Aging at Bay. Sleep and human cognitive development - PMC - National Center for From the findings, Dr. Spencer concludes that not only are naps important for children but that their transition away from them is connected to how developed their hippocampus is.When the hippocampus is inefficient, its like having a small bucket, Dr. Spencer says. Taking a short nap during the day may help boost your brain health as you get older, according to a new study. Previous research had identified certain features of an EEG trace like a voltage blip at a particular time that appear when people hear something unexpected. However, a normal part of development is the transition out of naps. The science seems to suggest that theres a unique role of napping in early cognitive development, says Simona Ghetti, a developmental psychologist at the University of California, Davis, and coauthor of a 2020 article in theAnnual Review of Developmental Psychologyon memory in the developing brain. Newborns sleep some 16 to 18 hours a day. Standards also have loosened around making classrooms conducive to sleep, for instance by enabling teachers to darken rooms during naptime. "Young child's brain, not age, determines nap transitions, research suggests." Questions? What Happens in the Brain When Naps Stop? Place your infant on their back for sleep or naps. Additional scientific evidence "would help parents and providers appreciate that nap transitions cannot be determined by age, and the opportunity to nap should be protected for those that need it.". Dashti said his teams findings indicate that more frequent daytime napping may be protective for the brain.. Greenstein said, If you feel that daily napping is necessary to optimal function despite getting an average of eight hours of sleep per night, I recommend first seeing a sleep medicine specialist to ensure there isnt an underlying sleep disorder., Paz V, Dashti HS, Garfield V. Is there an association between daytime napping, cognitive function, and brain volume? 2022 Nov;119(44):e2201795119. In young children, naps are considered important for brain development and function. Currently parents tell by observing that naps become less frequent, shorter, and that a childs behavior becomes less challenging when they miss a nap, she said. We used structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to study brain volumes and the results of computerised games that involved identifying matches of cards to test cognitive abilities. In other words, Friedrich says, while infants were sleeping, their brains extracted the gist of previous experiences.. Sleep promotes healthy brain and cognitive development . Spencers research underscores the importance of providing all young children with the opportunity to sleep during the day, she said. Napping status is of particular interest, as studies have found that when deprived of a midday nap, habitually napping children have greater memory detriment than children who are non-nappers ( Kurdziel et al., 2013 ; Leong . When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. When kids who take naps regularly miss their naps, they tend to fare poorly on memory tests, researchers have found. Spencer says the growing evidence highlights the importance of providing all young children with the opportunity to nap. An absolute boatload of science suggests naps improve cognitive function, creativity, memory,and work performance, and also reduce stress and anxiety. Spencer RMC, Riggins T. Contributions of memory and brain development to the bioregulation of naps and nap transitions in early childhood. She also has experience working in television news at local stations in New York City. A snooze isn't just likely to improve your productivity -- or that of your employees -- it's also likely to help keep your brain healthy and strong. These . She and her colleagues set out to understand why. Haelle T., Do preschoolers still need naps? Dr. Pressman explains that it can be hard to tell when their brain has signaled they no longer need routine naps. Subscribe to the Knowable Magazine newsletter. 2013 Oct 22;110(43):17267-72. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1306418110. The novel theory, which supports the practice of providing the opportunity for all preschoolers and pre-kindergarteners to nap, connects bioregulatory mechanisms underlying nap transitions, focusing on the hippocampus - the memory area of the brain. Some studies have also shown that people with cognitive impairment may experience a decrease in brain volume," they write. Before Relations between sleep patterns early in life and brain development: A The science seems to suggest that theres a unique role of napping in early cognitive development, says Simona Ghetti, a developmental psychologist at the University of California, Davis, and coauthor of a 2020 article in theAnnual Review of Developmental Psychology on memory in the developing brain. Many naps, one nap, none: A systematic review and meta-analysis of napping patterns in children 012 years. Watch the video now. The benefits of napping - Harvard Health Our findings demonstrate a larger total brain volume with more frequent napping. By Felice J. Freyer Globe Staff,Updated October 24, 2022, 8:16 p.m. kamel. While a 30- to 90-minute nap in older adults appears to have brain benefits, anything longer than an hour and a half may create problems with cognition, the ability to think and form memories, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society . University of Massachusetts Amherst. Naps are important during infancy and early childhood as they enhance learning through memory consolidation. The research team analyzed genetic code that was linked to participants likelihood of taking regular naps, and then compared results from brain health analyses and cognition tests between people who had the napping genes and those without those genes. But that presents a puzzle, she adds, since kids eventually give up their regular naps. Infants just one or two days old, the researchers found, can learn that a tone predicts a gentle puff of air such that, eventually, the infants blink after hearing the tone alone, much as Pavlovs famous dogs drooled in response to certain sounds that initially had been followed by food. What's needed next to advance the theory is longitudinal research that follows children over time to assess sleep physiology, structural and functional development, and memory changes across nap transitions. Trejos N., Time may be up for naps in pre-K class. At first, they sleep randomly throughout the day, but by about six months their inner clocks sync up with the day-night cycle. Neuroscientists are piecing together how young kids can remember so much even while parts of the brain crucial to memory are still developing. Bookshelf Dr. Spencer and the nap researching team conducted their study in two different ways to understand when and why that transition away from napping happens. Naps Can Help Preschool Children Learn | National Institutes of Health Curr Opin Pulm Med. Nick Blackmer. Nick Blackmer is a librarian, fact-checker, and researcher with more than 20 years of experience in consumer-facing health and wellness content. It is clear that daytime naps go through developmental changes and become less important with brain maturity. Association of nap frequency with hypertension or ischemic stroke supported by prospective cohort data and Mendelian randomization in predominantly middle-aged European subjects. Your 4-month-old's vision is also drastically improving. Brain development determines nap transitions in early childhood Photographs and illustrations are not included in this license. Some evidence for this comes from Spencers collaboration withTracy Riggins, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Maryland in College Park. In the long term, Spencer says, researchers may be able to develop a cognitive measure of memory, perhaps giving kids a simple task to determine if they've crossed the threshold of needing regular naps. In this way, napping is akin to other developmental milestones like learning to walk and talk, which are also highly variable from child to child, Staton says. That range is completely normal. Californias new universal pre-K program does not require naptime. Sleeping more at night wont make up for it. 16, 213222 (2012). It may be that memory and brain development play a role in nap habituality (the frequency at which a child naps or not). Spencer and Riggins think this may explain why the need for naps diminishes as kids age. Contributions of memory and brain development to the bioregulation of naps and nap transitions in early childhood. Young child's brain, not age, determines nap transitions, research suggests. 2022;79(9):1962-1970. doi:10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.19120. A Mendelian randomization study in the UK Biobank. A low beep sounds, and she squints. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Felice J. Freyer can be reached at felice.freyer@globe.com. But this process is accelerated in people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers. Young Child's Brain, Not Age, Determines Nap - UMass Amherst University College London provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK. Temporal Associations between Actigraphy-Measured Daytime Movement Behaviors and Nap Sleep in Early Childhood. Naps are important during infancy and early childhood as they enhance learning through memory consolidation. No one knows why, but a cadre of researchers is on the case. Contributions of memory and brain development to the bioregulation of naps and nap transitions in early childhood. Neuroscientists have proposed that, in adults, the CA2-4/DG region tracks the differences between similar memories. Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, shopping, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Womens Health, Self, Prevention, Forbes, Daily Beast, and more. That sounds like a good thing, and indeed the experts explain in depth why you really want to keep your brain as plump as possible for as long as possible. This uses genetic markers to assess the relationship between exposures and outcomes (such as certain traits or diseases). The study, which was published in the journal Sleep Health, analyzed DNA samples and brain scans from more than 35,000 people between the ages of 40 to 69 who were involved in the UK Biobank study. . If you're looking to get the maximum benefit out of your new napping habit, experts have tips on how to take the perfect nap. Sleep plays an important role in keeping the brain healthy, which is why people are advised to get at least 7-9 hours each night. The average adult needs approximately eight hours of sleep per night and some studies estimate that at least 40% of Americans are getting less than that, sleep medicine specialist Yonatan Greenstein, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Rutgers, told Health. We're saying this is a critical time of development in the brain and sleep has something to do with it. While a daily nap may sound like a dream to you, your 2-year-old won't go down without a fight. "When the hippocampus is inefficient, it's like having a small bucket," she says. CBS News, 18 February 2015. Can napping make you smarter? | Cognitive Vitality | Alzheimer's Drug 2020;50:101247. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2019.101247, Miller AL, Seifer R, Crossin R, Lebourgeois MK. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error, Understanding nap transitions through the two-process model of sleep regulation. By Carolyn Wilke Another suggestion Dr. Spencer offers is to consider advocating for nap time at preschools if they dont have it. -. ScienceDaily. Once children enter preschool, their napping environment may change. Toddlers self-regulation strategies in a challenge context are nap-dependent. Its still early for this work, and the scientists dont yet know if other brain regions may also be involved with the transition out of habitual naps. Frequent readers of this column will know I am a big fan of naps, and not just because I live in a place that's developed a siesta culture to deal with the intense summer heat (though that's certainly part of it). Relations between sleep changes and brain development. "Additionally, previous research has indicated a connection between sleep problems and reductions in brain volume in various regions of the brain, which can be linked to cognitive decline.". "This overarching theory is based on data that we've published over the past couple of years; it's about putting the pieces together," says Spencer, professor of psychological and brain sciences, who collaborated with co-author Tracy Riggins, a University of Maryland child psychologist specializing in memory development. In a follow-up survey with around 65 kids, Riggins and Spencer are now using MRI scans to track brain changes in individuals as they grow, which may allow researchers to catch hippocampal changes as they happen, and to establish stronger connections between brain development and napping. In Friedrichs study, the presence of a blip would show that an infant was surprised to hear the object paired with the wrong word, indicating that the baby had earlier learned a word-object association. , A call for action regarding translational research in pediatric sleep. "[Make sure] it's not about some need," Aliza Pressman, PhD says of the reasons preschoolers may be averse to napping. . Find her on Twitter @carolynmwilke. Spencer notes that it may seem counterintuitive for young kids to abandon habitual naps. . Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily, its staff, its contributors, or its partners. We know there are key developmental patterns happening at this age . You can't, for instance, just compare folks who nap with folks who don't and see who does better. The research team looked at different preschools' philosophies around nap time and found that it was not uniform across the board. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal The transition from multiple sleep bouts each day to a single overnight sleep bout (i.e., nap transition) is a universal process in human development. They can hold memories until the end of the day, when overnight sleep can process information from the hippocampus to the cortex, the researchers posit. Younger school-age children typically need more sleep than those who are in middle school or approaching high school. The Effects of Napping on Cognitive Function in Preschoolers The author's daughter participates in a nap study of preschoolers, which found that naps help young children remember what they learned and produce "sleep spindles," short bursts of brain activity associated with memory Courtesy Rebecca Spencer Whether we're in the middle of running errands or it's a . "This growth is equivalent to delaying aging by three to six years," explained Dr. Elkan . The two scientists are now looking to see how kids brains change as they stop napping. A Mendelian randomization study in the UK Biobank, Association of nap frequency with hypertension or ischemic stroke supported by prospective cohort data and Mendelian randomization in predominantly middle-aged European subjects. Napping: Do's and don'ts for healthy adults - Mayo Clinic Why do some 4- and 5-year-olds still nap like clockwork every afternoon, while other preschoolers start giving up habitual napping at age 3? Using caps equipped with electrodes to record the brains electrical activity, researchers hope to gain insights into how babies learn in their sleep. Want to Slow Brain Aging? Napping allows memories to move to the cortex, freeing space for more information to be stored in the hippocampus. Brain development drives toddlers to stop naping - HealthDay government site. When the information is more complex, children cant form a strong memory during the learning experience. Assistant Researcher in the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, UCL, Instructor in Anaesthesia Medicine, Harvard University, Senior Research Fellow in Genetic Epidemiology, UCL. This is because a lack of sleep activates the bodys stress response, which affects different brain and body systems. University of Massachusetts Amherst. Some kids start walking as early as nine months, while others learn to walk at 18 months. If napping ever seemed like a waste of time to you, it is time to rethink. What if My Child's Preschool Doesn't Have Naptime? A study they published in the journal Nature in 2020 found that children who had transitioned out of napping had a more developed hippocampus, the area of the brain involved with memory and learning, than children who were still sleeping during the day.
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