The Benefit of Naps on Cognitive, Emotional and Motor Learning in Preschoolers

午睡对学龄前儿童认知、情感和运动学习的好处

基本信息

批准号：
8502347
负责人：
Rebecca M C Spencer
金额：
$ 36.96万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2012
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2012-07-01 至 2017-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8502347
关键词：
Accounting Adult Age Brain Child Child Development Childhood Circadian Rhythms Cognitive Data Development Developmental Delay Disorders Dimensions Disadvantaged Education Educational Curriculum Educational process of instructing Emotional Goals Guidelines Health Benefit Immediate Recalls Individual Differences Intervention Knowledge Learning Length Longevity Memory Mental Health Modeling Moods Motor Napping Nursery Schools Outcome Pattern Performance Personal Satisfaction Policies Population Preparation Preschool Child Process Psychopathology Readiness Relative (related person)Research Research Personnel Rest Risk Schedule Schools Science Sleep Sleep Stages Targeted Research Task Performances Training Underserved Population Weaning Work awake base cognitive function cost design developmental disease improved innovation memory process memory recall motor learning novel parental influence physical conditioning pressure procedural memory relating to nervous system young adult

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sleep protects and enhances memory in young adults. Specifically, performance changes on a range of tasks are greater following an interval with sleep relative to changes over an interval spent awake. Sleep also enhances encoding of subsequent memories. In young adults, a mid-day nap is sufficient for gaining these performance benefits. Unlike adults, mid-day naps are routine for young children. The age at which children wean from this biphasic sleep pattern is often influenced by parent and school schedules. Whether naps confer a particular benefit to learning and performance of young children is unknown. The research objective of this proposal is to characterize the function of sleep on learning and memory in young children (3-5 yrs) using naps as a model. By probing recall prior to and following mid-day nap or wake intervals, the overarching hypothesis is that mid-day naps benefit existing memories and subsequent learning. In the preschool classroom, children will be trained on a declarative, emotional, or procedural learning task before (Specific Aim 1) or after (Specific Aim 2) a mid-day nap opportunity. In two conditions, children will either be nap-promoted or wake-promoted during this interval. Subsequently, performance will be reassessed that day as well as the following day. The specific hypotheses examined are: a) mid-day naps benefit performance on most tasks learned prior to sleep; b) performance on tasks learned after sleep is superior to performance for tasks learned after wake, and; c) the benefit of sleep remains even after overnight sleep, when differences in sleep pressure and mood are equated. This work is innovative in that it presents a novel application of an accepted theoretical construct. Moreover, these results are expected to shift the current lax practices regarding naps in preschools to a practice of nap-promotion and better regard for the length of the nap opportunity. The translational significance may be seen in new policies regarding in-class nap opportunities and pediatric nap guidelines for preschool children. The theoretical significance is that these outcomes will drive an entirely new research dimension for educational sciences (sleep as a novel target to enhance learning) and spur further developmental studies on the influence and underpinnings of sleep-dependent cognitive and neural processes.

描述（由申请人提供）：睡眠可以保护和增强年轻人的记忆。具体而言，在与睡眠的间隔相对于一段时间内的变化，一系列任务的性能变化更大。睡眠还可以增强随后记忆的编码。在年轻人中，中午午睡足以获得这些表现优势。与成年人不同，幼儿的午睡是常规的。这种双相睡眠模式中孩子断奶的年龄通常受父母和学校时间表的影响。午睡是否赋予幼儿的学习和表现特别好处是未知的。该提案的研究目标是表征使用小睡作为模型的幼儿学习和记忆（3 - 5年）的学习和记忆的功能。通过在午睡或唤醒间隔之前和之后探测召回，总体假设是中午小睡会使现有记忆和随后的学习有益。在学龄前教室中，将在（特定目标1）或之后（特定目标2）中午午睡机会之前对儿童进行宣言，情感或程序学习任务的培训。在两个条件下，孩子将要么在此间隔期间，在午睡或唤醒启动。随后，当天和第二天的表现将被重新评估。所检查的具体假设是：a）中午小睡在睡眠前学到的大多数任务中的绩效； b）睡眠后学习的任务的表现优于唤醒后学习的任务的表现，并且； c）即使在睡眠压力和情绪上的差异等同的情况下，睡眠的好处仍然保留。这项工作具有创新性，因为它提出了公认的理论结构的新应用。此外，这些结果有望将目前关于学前班小睡的LAX做法转移到小睡促进的做法，并更好地关注NAP机会的长度。在有关学龄前儿童的课堂午睡机会和小儿NAP指南的新政策中，可以看出翻译意义。理论上的意义在于，这些结果将推动教育科学的全新研究维度（睡眠作为增强学习的新目标），并刺激对睡眠依赖性认知和神经过程的影响和基础的进一步发展研究。