Sleep
Conditions
Brief summary
The specific objective of the proposed research is to examine whether naps contribute to immediate and delayed benefits on multiple forms of learning in young children (3-5 yrs). By probing recall prior to and following mid-day nap or wake intervals, the overarching hypothesis is that recent memories are actively processed (as opposed to passively protected) by a nap, conferring immediate or delayed (24-hrs) benefits on declarative (Aim 1), procedural (Aim 2), and emotional (Aim 3) memories. In two conditions, children will either be nap-promoted or wake-promoted midday. Subsequently, performance will be reassessed that day as well as the following day.
Detailed description
The proposed research examines whether naps contribute to immediate and delayed benefits on multiple forms of learning in preschool-aged children (3-5 yrs). By probing recall prior to and following mid-day nap or wake intervals, we will examine immediate memory performance and how it is changed by an interval with a nap compared to if that interval was spent awake. There are three arm, separately assessing declarative (using a storybook learning task), procedural (using a mirror tracing task), and emotional (using an emotional storybook task). All children will participate in a nap and wake condition. On the experimental day, children will learn the task, then be nap or wake promoted (within subject, conditions counterbalanced and separated by 1 week). Subsequently, performance will be reassessed that day as well as the following day. Children will wear an actigraph watch for a 16-day interval surrounding the experimental days in order to access habitual sleep patterns (e.g., nap frequency). A subset of children will complete the experimental days in the sleep laboratory. For these children, sleep will be measured using polysomnography, a montage of electroencepholography, electromyography, and electrooculography electrodes.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALNapping
Children nap during the nap opportunity
Sponsors
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Masking description
Within-subject; participants/experimenters are aware of conditions
Intervention model description
Within subject comparison of nap and wake conditions
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
33 Months to 60 Months
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* be enrolled in a preschool testing site or available to come into the lab
Exclusion criteria
* Diagnosis of any sleep disorder(other than mild parasomnia) past or present * Current use of psychotropic or sleep-altering medications * traveling beyond 1 time zone within 1 month of testing * fever or symptoms of respiratory illness at the time of testing * physical handicap which interferes with assessments (vision, hearing impairment) * diagnosed developmental disability
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in memory accuracy | 4-5 hours | Accuracy on the memory task following the nap compared to before the nap relative to the same memory change measured over an interval spent awake |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed