The Importance of Sleep in Childhood

When searching “sleep disorders in children” on Google, over 563 million results come up. The increasing number of sleeping disorders in children is alarming. Sleep disorders in developing brains can have tremendous consequences on different aspects of a child’s life. Among these consequences, deficiency in memory is one of them. As sleeping disorders have been increasing, the branch of neurology focused on sleep has also seen important growth. Indeed, more and more studies and research are being done to learn more about this topic and its consequences when the lack of. This post explores the relationship between sleep deprivation in developing brains and its effect on memory. 

Undoubtedly, sleeping is very important, especially in children. The article “Study flags later risks for sleep-deprived kids” gives an overview of the many consequences the lack of sleep can have. The article mentions problems in attention, working memory, and problem-solving. These kids who experience an insufficient amount of sleep are prone to poor neurobehavioral function. Sleep disorders in children can be due to poor quality sleep in infancy. Thus, the Harvard Gazette article emphasizes the importance of good quantity and quality sleep at the youngest ages. 

In the paper “Developmental emergence of sleep rhythms enable long-term memory capabilities in Drosophila”, Dr. Cavanaugh studies when sleep rhythms emerge and how they affect memory in Drosophila. Early on in this research paper, he establishes that sleep rhythms start emerging in early 3rd instar larvae (L3). Sleep deprivation or poor quality sleep had little to no effect on short-term memory in early L3. However, long-term memory was affected by the lack of sleep. The research article goes in-depth on how the knockdown of CCHa-1R in Dh44 neurons directly affects sleep rhythms in L3, which affects their long-term memory.  He concluded that sleep deprivation during the emergence of sleep rhythms interferes with long-term memory in drosophila. 

Although Dr. Cavanaugh researched the effects of sleep disorders in Drosophila flies’ memories; we can still draw parallels with the Harvard article. Indeed, the “Study flags later risks for sleep-deprived kids” article, mentions the importance of good quality sleep at the youngest ages as sleep rhythms are starting to emerge. Similarly, in Dr. Cavanaugh’s research paper, he studies the emergence of sleep rhythms in early 3rd instar larvae. Just like the sleep-deprived L3 are at risk of long-term memory deficiency, sleep-deprived children with emerging sleep rhythms are at risk for poor neurobehavioral function. 

References:

Poe, A., Zhu, L., McClanahan, P. D., Szuperak, M., Anafi, R. C., Cavanaugh, D. J., Thum, A. S., & Kayser, M. S. (2022, February 5). Developmental emergence of sleep rhythms enables long-term memory capabilities in Drosophila. 

McGreevey, S. (2018, April 16). Study flags later risks for sleep-deprived kids. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/03/study-flags-later-risks-for-sleep-deprived-kids/