Acute sleep restriction effects on emotion responses in 30‐ to 36‐month‐old children

Abstract

SUMMARY Early childhood is a period of dramatic change in sleep and emotion processing, as well as a time when disturbance in both domains are first detected. Although sleep is recognized as central in emotion processing and psychopathology, the great majority of experimental data have been collected in adults. We examined the effects of acute sleep restriction (nap deprivation) on toddlers’ emotion expression. Ten healthy children (7 females; 30–36 months) followed a strict sleep schedule (≥12.5 hrs time in bed/24 hrs) for 5 days before each of two randomly-assigned afternoon emotion assessments following Nap and No-Nap conditions (resulting in an 11-day protocol). Children viewed emotion-eliciting pictures (5 positive, 3 neutral, 3 negative) and completed puzzles (1 solvable, 1 unsolvable). Children’s faces were video-recorded, and emotion displays were coded. When sleep restricted, children displayed less confusion in response to neutral pictures, more negativity to neutral and negative pictures, and less positivity to positive pictures. Sleep restriction also resulted in a 34% reduction in positive emotion responses (solvable puzzle), as well as a 31% increase in negative emotion responses and a 39% decrease in confused responses (unsolvable puzzle). These findings suggest sleep is a key factor in how young children respond to their world. When sleep restricted, toddlers are neither able to take full advantage of positive experiences nor are they as adaptive in challenging contexts. If insufficient sleep consistently “taxes” young children’s emotion responses, they may not manage emotion regulation challenges effectively, potentially placing them at risk for future emotional/behavioral problems.

Sleep and Emotional Functions

“…Furthermore, it is noteworthy that active (or REM) sleep occupies the biggest portion of a child's sleep and occurs much earlier in human development than proper dreaming (Foulkes 1993). Altogether, these data suggest that REM sleep of infants is likely to subserve crucial emotional (Berger et al 2012;Perogamvros 2012) and learning functions (Fifer et al 2010), much like what is found in adults (Sterpenich et al 2009;Wagner et al 2001) (see Sect. 3.5).…”

Effects of Genotype and Sleep on Temperament

“…[5][6][7] Nap deprivation in 36-month-old children results in increased expressed negativity to the presentation of neutral and negative pictures and decreased expressed positivity to positive pictures. 8 Furthermore, when facing an emotional challenge (solvable and unsolvable puzzles), nap-deprived children displayed dampened positive emotions to solvable puzzles as well as increased negative emotions to unsolvable puzzles. Vriend and colleagues 9 reported that 1 hour of sleep restriction for 4 consecutive nights resulted in increased sleepiness, less positive affective response to stimuli, and increased difficulty in emotion regulation, in children aged 8 to 12 years.…”

Pattern of Diagnosis and Co-occurring Symptoms in Adopted Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The largest challenge is the absence of specific data surrounding adoption, such as birth parent history, pregnancy history, age of adoption, or history of institutionalization, any of which could be expected to affect neurodevelopmental outcomes. 1,[3][4][5] Another limitation is that the ATN data analyzed here were collected at baseline visits, preventing longitudinal analysis of individual participants, which could clarify whether ASD and co-occurring symptoms evolve over time in this population. Furthermore, we lacked a control group of adopted children without ASD, the majority of whom we would expect to develop typically.…”

“…A variety of risk factors are more likely to have been experienced by adopted children, such as prenatal drug exposure, early abuse or neglect, and institutional care. [1][2][3][4][5] The risks associated with adoption range from early developmental issues, such as failure to thrive or general developmental delay, to symptoms emerging later in childhood or adolescence, including affective or attachment problems. These risks and outcomes of adoption overlap with characteristics of ASD; however, very little research has evaluated the relationship between the 2 populations.…”