Connections within young children's brains strengthen while they sleep

A study shows that as children under five years old sleep, the connections between the left and right halves of their brain strengthen showing the importance of sleep in young children.

As young children sleep, the connections between the right and left sides of their brains strengthen, according to a small new study.

Researchers measured the brain activity of eight children while they slept at ages 2, 3 and 5 years. They found that connections in the brain generally became stronger during sleep as the children aged.

The strength of the connections between the left and right sides of the brain increase as much as 20 percent over a night's sleep, according to the study, which was published online Nov. 12 in the journal Brain Sciences.

"There are strong indications that sleep and brain maturation are closely related, but at this time, it is not known how sleep leads to changes in brain structure," study leader Salome Kurth, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a university news release.

How sleep disruption during childhood may affect brain development and behavior will be examined in future studies.

"I believe inadequate sleep in childhood may affect the maturation of the brain related to the emergence of developmental or mood disorders," Kurth said.

It was already known that the brain changes drastically during early childhood. New connections are formed, others disappear and a fatty layer called "myelin" forms around nerve fibers in the brain. The growth of myelin strengthens the connections by speeding up the transfer of information, according to background information included in the news release.

Maturation of nerve fibers improves children's skills in areas such as language, attention and impulse control. But it hasn't been clear what role sleep plays in the development of such brain connections.

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Brain chemistry changes over time in children with autism

A study reveals that the brain chemistry in children with autism can change over time meaning autism is different than other developmental disorders.

Children with autism exhibit unusual brain chemistry that can change over time, new research shows.

That particular chemistry differs from both children with other developmental delays and children with typical development, the University of Washington researchers noted, and it adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests early interventions can alter outcomes in kids with autism.

The findings support the notion that autism spectrum disorder is fundamentally different from other developmental disorders, said study author Stephen Dager, associate director of the university's Center on Human Development and Disability.

"Children with autism showed a very different developmental course than kids who had developmental delays without autism," Dager said. "We're hoping to better understand what the processes are so we can develop more focused interventions that can help to modify these processes to the benefit of the individual."

The discovery also emphasizes the positive impact that early intervention can have on children with autism, said autism expert Dr. Ali Carine, an osteopathic pediatrician in Columbus, Ohio.

"Autism stands as a different type of process than a stagnant developmental process," Carine said. "We need to identify autistic children and start intervention when the potential for change is greatest. Clinically, we know the younger we catch these kids, the more they respond to intervention."

One of the researchers put it this way:

"A substantial number of kids with early, severe autism symptoms make tremendous improvements," said study co-author Annette Estes, director of the University of Washington's Autism Center. "We're only measuring part of the iceberg, but this is a glimmer that we might be able to find a more specific period of vulnerability that we can measure and learn how to do something more proactively."

Experts estimate that by age 8, one out of every 88 children will develop some form of autism, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Boys are four times more likely than girls to have an autism spectrum disorder.

In the study, researchers used MRI scans to measure the tissue-based brain chemicals of children at 3 to 4 years, 6 to 7 years and 9 to 10 years. They measured kids who had been diagnosed with autism, kids diagnosed with developmental delays and kids with typical development.

The investigators found particularly interesting changes in N-acetylaspartate (NAA), a chemical thought to play an important role in the development and regulation of synaptic connections in the brain. NAA levels are lower in people with conditions such as Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury or stroke.

The researchers found that at ages 3 to 4, children in the autism and developmental delay groups had low NAA concentrations in the gray matter of their brains. However, by ages 9 to 10, children with autism had NAA levels that had caught up to those exhibited by typically developing kids, while NAA remained low in the developmentally delayed group.

The results were reported online July 31 in JAMA Psychiatry.

While these findings are illuminating, they do not pinpoint when autism is likely to develop in children or why it happens, Dager said.

Future research will likely need to investigate children as young as 1 to 2 years old to capture the first brain chemistry changes that lead to autism, Carine said.

"They really believe, based on other published data, that they didn't capture the most dynamic period of children's brain development," Carine said of the new study. "Age 1 to 2 years old is the time when parents of autistic kids say their children seemed to stall, or they had speech and lost it."

Dager and other researchers at the University of Washington are currently using more advanced MRI methods to study infants considered at risk for autism because they have an older sibling with the disorder.

"We're looking prospectively at these children, starting at 6 months, to determine if we can detect very early alterations in brain cell signaling or related cellular disruption that may precede early, subtle clinical symptoms of autism spectrum disorder," Dager said.

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Irregular bedtimes can limit a child's brain power

By looking at how children scored on tests, researchers show that children who go to sleep at irregular times score lower on exams than children with regular bedtimes.

Going to bed at different times every night appears to reduce children's brainpower, a new British study suggests.

The research included 11,000 children in the United Kingdom whose family routines, including bedtimes, were recorded when they were aged 3, 5 and 7. At age 7, the children were given tests to assess their math and reading skills and spatial awareness.

Irregular bedtimes were most common at age 3, when around one in five children went to bed at varying times. By the age of 7, more than half the children went to bed regularly between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

At age 7, girls who had irregular bedtimes had lower scores on all three tests than girls with regular bedtimes. This was not the case among 7-year-old boys, according to the study, which was published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Irregular bedtimes at age 5 were not associated with poorer brainpower in girls or boys at age 7. But irregular bedtimes at age 3 were associated with lower scores in reading, math and spatial awareness in both genders, suggesting that around the age of 3 could be a sensitive period for the development of mental skills.

The impact of irregular bedtimes seemed to be cumulative. Girls who never had regular bedtimes at ages 3, 5 and 7 had significantly lower reading, math and spatial-awareness scores than girls who had consistent bedtimes. The impact was the same in boys, but at any two of the three ages.

Irregular bedtimes could disrupt natural body rhythms and cause sleep deprivation, harming children's ability to acquire and retain information, the researchers said.

"Early child development has profound influences on health and well-being across the life course," said study author Amanda Sacker, from the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London. "Therefore, reduced or disrupted sleep -- especially if it occurs at key times in development -- could have important impacts on health throughout life."

While the study found an apparent connection between irregular bedtimes and reduced mental acuity, it did not prove cause-and-effect.

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Sleep disorders in children can hurt their development

This article discusses how detrimental sleep disorders can be to children and their development.

Sleep behaviors are one of the most common concerns parents of young children discuss with their pediatricians. In infancy and early childhood, the developing brain requires more time asleep than it does awake.As a result, sleep quality is extremely important in the overall well-being of a child. Children suffering from lack of quality sleep or sleep-related disorders can jeopardize their cognitive, emotional and physical development. Pediatric sleep problems don’t just affect the child - they often have a negative impact on other siblings’ quality of sleep and the entire family dynamic.

Sleep disturbances are diagnosed in 25 to 30 percent of infants and children. Causes can include an inconsistent bedtime routine, sleepwalking, sleep apnea, narcolepsy and epilepsy. Not surprisingly, pediatric sleep disorders are often overlooked because presenting symptoms of negative behavior, moodiness, irritability, lack of motivation, inability to focus, lethargy are misdiagnosed as behavioral or emotional problems, not a physical, medical condition. Severe or chronic sleep disorders can even cause adverse cardiovascular and metabolic effects as well as failure to thrive.

Common pediatric symptoms

Symptoms of sleep disorders in children can be obvious or subtle and often present with one or more of these symptoms on a regular basis:

 ongoing bedtime resistance

 nightly awakenings

 sleepwalking

 nightmares

 bedwetting

 insomnia

 chronic snoring/breathing difficulties

How to proceed if you suspect a sleep disorder

First, consult with your pediatrician to rule out any acute or chronic medical conditions. Once medically cleared, it may be helpful to clinically observe and monitor your child in a sleep center that offers pediatric diagnosis and treatment services. These centers offer comfortable bedroom like settings where sleep patterns are evaluated and diagnosed during an overnight stay.A parent accompanies the child during the stay to provide comfort and alleviate anxiety.A sleep technologist applies small painless sensors designed to monitor your child’s brainwaves, muscle activity, heart rhythms, respiratory activity and oxygen saturation levels throughout the night. The results are then analyzed by a pediatric sleep medicine physician, who will determine a diagnosis and recommend the most appropriate treatment for your child, if necessary. Once properly diagnosed, this and other sleep-related medical conditions can be successfully treated to restore and continue the child’s normal development process. If you suspect your child may have a sleep issue, see your pediatrician and discuss a sleep study evaluation.

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