Sleep duration trajectories and cognition in early childhood: A systematic review

Abstract

Sleep is dynamic in childhood and studies have shown the relationship between sleep and cognition in children. As the human brain is the most plastic during childhood, the study of longitudinal sleep patterns and neurocognition is an important research area. We aimed to systematically review studies that investigated sleep duration trajectories and cognition in typically-developing children. We searched four databases for articles published between 2003 to October 2023. We included observation studies of children with sleep duration trajectories as a predictor and outcomes related to cognition, memory, language, developmental milestones, intelligence or executive function. We excluded studies where children had atypical development or completed the sleep and neurocognitive assessments after six and 12 years of age respectively. Out of 752 articles identified, 511 were screened and 23 full texts were assessed. The selected studies included three single trajectory and four multiple group trajectories studies. We found associations between both types of trajectories and cognitive development. Overall, children with longer sleep trajectories or more mature sleep pattern with rapid decrease in sleep duration, had better performance scores in developmental assessment tools, and intelligence tests. Findings for language and executive functioning were mixed, whereby some studies found associations and others did not.