Department of Physiology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
J Physiol. 2018 Dec;596(23):5687-5708. doi: 10.1113/JP274950. Epub 2018 Jun 2.
Good quality sleep of sufficient duration is vital for optimal physiological function and our health. Sleep deprivation is associated with impaired neurocognitive function and emotional control, and increases the risk for cardiometabolic diseases, obesity and cancer. Sleep develops during fetal life with the emergence of a recognisable pattern of sleep states in the preterm fetus associated with the development, maturation and connectivity within neural networks in the brain. Despite the physiological importance of sleep, surprisingly little is known about how sleep develops in individuals born preterm. Globally, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm (<37 weeks gestation) each year, and these babies are at significant risk of neural injury and impaired brain development. This review discusses how sleep develops during fetal and neonatal life, how preterm birth impacts on sleep development to adulthood, and the factors which may contribute to impaired brain and sleep development, leading to altered neurocognitive, behavioural and motor capabilities in the infant and child. Going forward, the challenge is to identify specific risk factors for impaired sleep development in preterm babies to allow for the design of interventions that will improve the quality and quantity of sleep throughout life.
优质且充足时长的睡眠对人体的生理功能和健康至关重要。睡眠不足会导致神经认知功能和情绪控制受损，并增加患心血管代谢疾病、肥胖症和癌症的风险。睡眠始于胎儿期，早产儿会出现可识别的睡眠状态模式，这与大脑神经网络的发育、成熟和连接有关。尽管睡眠具有重要的生理意义，但人们对早产儿的睡眠发育知之甚少。全球每年估计有 1500 万婴儿早产（<37 周妊娠），这些婴儿面临着严重的神经损伤和大脑发育受损的风险。这篇综述讨论了睡眠在胎儿和新生儿期是如何发育的，早产如何影响到成年后的睡眠发育，以及哪些因素可能导致大脑和睡眠发育受损，从而导致婴儿和儿童的神经认知、行为和运动能力改变。未来的挑战是确定早产儿睡眠发育受损的具体风险因素，以便设计干预措施，改善其整个生命周期的睡眠质量和数量。
