Clinical trial NCT03285880: The Benefits of Naps on Cognitive, Emotional, and Motor Learning in Preschoolers
Official title: The Benefits of Naps on Cognitive, Emotional, and Motor Learning in Preschoolers
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: TERMINATED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Sleep
Lead sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-09-18
Enrollment: 361
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 33
Maximum age (years): 60
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Within subject comparison of nap and wake conditions
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief 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.

Detailed 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.

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in memory accuracy
timeFrame: 4-5 hours
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Amherst
country: United States
facility: University of Massachusetts
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
name: Rebecca M Spencer, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
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.
citation: 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.