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

Sleep Clinical Trial

Official title:

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

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Terminated

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03285880
• Other study ID #: R01HL111695
• Status: Terminated
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 1, 2017
• Est. completion date: June 30, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: November 2022
• Source: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Terminated
• Enrollment: 361
• Est. completion date: June 30, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: June 30, 2022
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 33 Months to 60 Months

Eligibility

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

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Sleep

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Napping
Children nap during the nap opportunity

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Massachusetts	Amherst	Massachusetts

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (2)

Desrochers PC, Kurdziel LB, Spencer RM. Delayed benefit of naps on motor learning in preschool children. Exp Brain Res. 2016 Mar;234(3):763-72. doi: 10.1007/s00221-015-4506-3. Epub 2015 Dec 8. — View Citation

Kurdziel L, Duclos K, Spencer RM. Sleep spindles in midday naps enhance learning in preschool children. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Oct 22;110(43):17267-72. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1306418110. Epub 2013 Sep 23. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in memory accuracy	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	4-5 hours

External Links

•   Lab website