Sleeping soundly? Testing the links between sleep quality and neurodevelopmental characteristics

Sleep plays a major role in child development and sleep problems have been implicated in several neurodevelopmental conditions. However, its exact role in these conditions remains unknown. Co-occurrence is a core challenge of the existing diagnostic framework, with many advocating for a transdiagnostic approach to studying neurodevelopment. In this exploratory investigation, we look at a transdiagnostic sample of 299 children to (1) identify and compare data-driven sleep profiles and explore their links to behaviour, cognition and learning and (2) use a network approach to simultaneously characterise the relationship between sleep and symptoms of behaviour, communication and mental health. Cluster analysis identified two sleep profiles – regular sleepers and poor sleepers. Between-group comparisons showed that poor sleepers disproportionately experienced poorer emotion regulation, peer relationships and structural language. The network analysis suggested that after statistically accounting for the overlap between symptoms of behaviour, communication and mental health, sleep remained directly linked to multiple symptoms, with a particularly strong relationship with emotion regulation. These findings advance our knowledge of the role of sleep in neurodevelopmental conditions, highlighting its importance as a transdiagnostic process and priority in neurodevelopmental research.

Sleep quality and quantity are essential in children’s development. Children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental conditions tend to present more sleep problems. However, the exact interaction between sleep and these conditions is still under discussion. Here, novel statistical approaches were used to explore the relationship between sleep and aspects of children’s behaviour, communication, and mental health. These methods identified two groups of children based on their sleep quality: poor sleepers and regular sleepers. The two groups were compared across a broad set of measures including neurodevelopmental difficulties, learning outcomes and mental health. The regular sleepers performed better than those with sleep problems on all measures, with poor sleepers presenting crucial difficulties in emotion regulation, peer relationships and structural language. Using network models, an explorative global analysis of all the participants together reiterated the influence of structural language on other behaviours and uncovered a strong connection between sleep and emotion regulation. Overall, this study improves our knowledge of the role of sleep in conditions affecting brain development and its relationship with behaviour, communication and mental health.