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

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Sleep

Treatments: Behavioral: Napping

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03285880

R01HL111695

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment: 361 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 33 to 60 months old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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361 participants in 3 patient groups

Declarative memory

Experimental group

Description:

Napping v. wake effect on a declarative memory task (storybook)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Napping

Procedural memory

Experimental group

Description:

Napping v. wake effect on a procedural memory task (motor sequence learning or mirror tracing)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Napping

Emotional memory

Experimental group

Description:

Napping v. wake effect on an emotional memory task (emotional faces or storybook)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Napping