Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Albacete, Spain.
Applied Cognitive Psychology Unit, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain.
Scand J Psychol. 2022 Jun;63(3):191-198. doi: 10.1111/sjop.12801. Epub 2022 Mar 14.
Sleep is a support for cognitive development in childhood. Most of the studies in the field have focused on school-age children and sleep problems, but less research focuses on the relation between the normative course of sleep and executive functions in preschoolers. Thus, the aim of the present study was to analyze the association between nighttime sleep duration and executive functioning in a 158 non-clinical sample of Spanish participants (M = 56.35 months, SD = 11.24; ages 38-78 months; 48.1% girls). Sleep habits were measured by parents' self-reports; Shape School task was applied to assess inhibition and cognitive flexibility; Word Span task was used to assess working memory; and Vocabulary subtest from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-III was used to assess verbal ability. The findings revealed that the relation between sleep and executive functioning was only significant in the cases of inhibition and working memory. Further, age and verbal ability were related and were predictors of inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. We consider it necessary to continue researching in this area given the importance of forming a correct sleep habit during the preschool age and its impact on health, cognition, and well-being in childhood. In short, our results represent the first approach to the subject under study, which should be completed with objective sleep measures.
睡眠是儿童认知发展的支撑。该领域的大多数研究都集中在学龄儿童和睡眠问题上，但较少的研究关注正常睡眠过程与学龄前儿童执行功能之间的关系。因此，本研究旨在分析西班牙 158 名非临床参与者（M=56.35 个月，SD=11.24；年龄 38-78 个月；48.1%的女孩）的夜间睡眠时间与执行功能之间的关系。睡眠习惯由家长的自我报告来衡量；采用形状学校任务来评估抑制和认知灵活性；采用单词跨度任务来评估工作记忆；采用韦氏学前和小学智力量表第三版的词汇分量表来评估语言能力。研究结果表明，只有在抑制和工作记忆方面，睡眠与执行功能之间的关系才具有统计学意义。此外，年龄和语言能力相关，并且是抑制、工作记忆和认知灵活性的预测因素。我们认为，考虑到在学龄前形成正确睡眠习惯的重要性及其对儿童健康、认知和幸福感的影响，有必要继续在这一领域进行研究。简而言之，我们的结果代表了对所研究主题的首次探讨，应该通过客观的睡眠测量来进一步完善。
