Developmental Changes in Sleep Spindle Characteristics and Sigma Power across Early Childhood

McClain, Ian J.; Lustenberger, Caroline; Achermann, Peter; Lassonde, Jonathan M.; Kurth, Salomé; LeBourgeois, Monique K.

doi:10.1155/2016/3670951

Cited by 38 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…11 On the other hand, a longitudinal study of 8 children showed a decrease in spindle frequency and no change in spindle density between ages 2-3 and 5. 12 This study also showed that spindle duration, amplitude and sigma power selective to the slow spindle range (11.25-13.00 Hz) all increased with age. Similarly, a small cross-sectional study of children aged 0-4 years revealed an increase in slow spindle density with age and a negative correlation between mean spindle frequency and age.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Sleep spindles are altered in early- but not late-onset nightmare recallers

et al. 2018

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Nightmares are a common sleep disorder, defined as highly disturbing mentation which usually awakens the individual from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. While nightmares are mainly a REM sleep phenomenon, Picard-Deland et al., (2017) recently showed an association between nightmare recall and sleep spindles, which are a non-rapid eye movement (NREM) oscillatory feature. Their results pointed to fewer slow spindles and a higher oscillatory frequency for fast spindles among frequent nightmare recallers compared with controls. To test the suggestion that nightmares stem from changes to emotional neural circuits arising in early childhood (Nielsen, 2017), including early changes in sleep spindles (Scholle et al., 2007), we investigated if the spindle features of early-onset nightmare recallers (ie, recalling nightmares since childhood) (N = 22), differed from those of late-onset nightmare recallers (ie, since adolescence or adulthood) (N = 11), or from those of controls (N = 23). A retrospective analysis of the sleep spindles of 56 participants who had undergone a polysomnographically-recorded morning nap revealed that Early starters uniquely exhibited lower slow spindle densities in five of six derivations (all p < 0.045) and higher fast spindle frequencies in all six derivations (all p < 0.015). These results add precision to previously reported findings for Nightmare recallers: spindle differences are shown to hold only for Early starters. The lifelong occurrence of nightmares may be closely tied to disruptions in the normal development of spindle generation processes occurring early in development.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Sleep spindles are altered in early- but not late-onset nightmare recallers

et al. 2018

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“…Normally, REM% decreases through infancy; a comparison of 2- and 5-year olds found reductions in both REM minutes (175–140) and REM% (29–24%) (171). This REM decrease may be accelerated by early adversity.…”

Section: The Stress Acceleration Hypothesis Of Nightmaresmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Stress Acceleration Hypothesis of Nightmares

Nielsen

2017

Front. Neurol.

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Adverse childhood experiences can deleteriously affect future physical and mental health, increasing risk for many illnesses, including psychiatric problems, sleep disorders, and, according to the present hypothesis, idiopathic nightmares. Much like post-traumatic nightmares, which are triggered by trauma and lead to recurrent emotional dreaming about the trauma, idiopathic nightmares are hypothesized to originate in early adverse experiences that lead in later life to the expression of early memories and emotions in dream content. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper are to (1) review existing literature on sleep, dreaming and nightmares in relation to early adverse experiences, drawing upon both empirical studies of dreaming and nightmares and books and chapters by recognized nightmare experts and (2) propose a new approach to explaining nightmares that is based upon the Stress Acceleration Hypothesis of mental illness. The latter stipulates that susceptibility to mental illness is increased by adversity occurring during a developmentally sensitive window for emotional maturation—the infantile amnesia period—that ends around age 3½. Early adversity accelerates the neural and behavioral maturation of emotional systems governing the expression, learning, and extinction of fear memories and may afford short-term adaptive value. But it also engenders long-term dysfunctional consequences including an increased risk for nightmares. Two mechanisms are proposed: (1) disruption of infantile amnesia allows normally forgotten early childhood memories to influence later emotions, cognitions and behavior, including the common expression of threats in nightmares; (2) alterations of normal emotion regulation processes of both waking and sleep lead to increased fear sensitivity and less effective fear extinction. These changes influence an affect network previously hypothesized to regulate fear extinction during REM sleep, disruption of which leads to nightmares. This network consists of a fear circuit that includes amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex and whose substantial overlap with the stress acceleration findings allows the latter to be incorporated into a wider, more developmentally coherent framework.

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“…In a study of sleep spindles in children from 2-5 years of age, it was found that spindle duration, amplitude, and power increased with age, whereas mean spindle frequency decreased. 102 Importantly, there was no change in spindle density with increasing age (Fig. 3).…”

Section: Neurophysiological Evidence-eegmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Even earlier, by age 6–8 months, there is a well‐formed, symmetric, and synchronous sleep architecture identical to that found in adults. In a study of sleep spindles in children from 2–5 years of age, it was found that spindle duration, amplitude, and power increased with age, whereas mean spindle frequency decreased . Importantly, there was no change in spindle density with increasing age (Fig.…”

Section: Clinical Evidence Supporting Extrapolation Of Aed Efficacy Imentioning

confidence: 95%

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Extrapolating evidence of antiepileptic drug efficacy in adults to children ≥2 years of age with focal seizures: The case for disease similarity

Pellock

Arzimanoglou

D’Cruz³

et al. 2017

Epilepsia

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Expediting pediatric access to new antiseizure drugs is particularly compelling, because epileptic seizures are the most common serious neurological symptom in children. Analysis of antiepileptic drug (AED) efficacy outcomes of randomized controlled trials, conducted during the past 20 years in different populations and a broad range of study sites and countries, has shown considerable consistency for each drug between adult and pediatric populations. Historically, the majority of regulatory approvals for AEDs have been for seizure types and not for specific epilepsy syndromes. Available data, both anatomical and neurophysiological, support a similar pathophysiology of focal seizures in adults and young children, and suggest that by age 2 years the structural and physiological milieu upon which seizures develop is similar. Although the distribution of specific etiologies and epilepsy syndromes is different in children from in adults, this should not impact approvals of efficacy based on seizure type, because the pathophysiology of focal seizures and the drug responsiveness of these seizure types are quite similar. Safety and pharmacokinetics cannot be extrapolated from adults to children. The scientific rationale, clinical consensus, and published data support a future approach accepting efficacy data from adult trials and focusing exclusively on prospective pharmacokinetic, tolerability, and safety studies and long-term follow-up in children. Whereas tolerability studies can be compared easily in children and adults, safety studies require large numbers of patients followed for many years.

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Developmental Changes in Sleep Spindle Characteristics and Sigma Power across Early Childhood

Cited by 38 publications

References 45 publications

Sleep spindles are altered in early- but not late-onset nightmare recallers

Sleep spindles are altered in early- but not late-onset nightmare recallers

The Stress Acceleration Hypothesis of Nightmares

Extrapolating evidence of antiepileptic drug efficacy in adults to children ≥2 years of age with focal seizures: The case for disease similarity

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