Examining Relations among Sleep, Slow Wave Variables, and Next-day Emotional Processing in School-age Children

Introduction: Sleep is critical to children’s daytime functioning, and inadequate sleep in childhood is known to forecast the development of psychological and behavioral problems. A proposed mechanism underlying these relationships is emotional processing. The majority of studies have examined emotional outcomes in relation to children’s total sleep time. In contrast, recent work suggests macro- and micro-architectural features of sleep – namely, slow wave sleep (SWS) and slow wave activity (SWA) – are inversely associated with affective symptoms/disorders both concurrently and longitudinally among youth and adult samples. However, near-term prospective relations between slow wave features and discrete emotional processing constructs have rarely been examined among healthy youth. Here, we sought to 1) investigate associations between slow wave characteristics during a night of adequate sleep and next-day positive emotional outcomes, and 2) examine associations between changes in slow wave characteristics from a night of adequate sleep to a second night of partially restricted sleep and changes in next-day emotional outcomes among a community sample of school-age children. Methods: N = 14 youth ages 7-11 years completed one night of at-home polysomnography (PSG) monitoring (10-hour sleep opportunity) followed by an in-lab emotional assessment the following day, including self-reported affect and valence and arousal ratings for positive affective images. Approximately one week later, children completed two consecutive nights of partial sleep restriction (7 and 6 hours, respectively), the first of which took place at home, and the second of which took place in lab with PSG monitoring. The following morning, children completed a second in-lab emotional assessment using parallel forms of the same measures. Results: Pearson’s correlations were first examined between predictor and outcome variables of interest. Modest correlations were observed between central SW density during a night of adequate sleep and next-day valence ratings, and between residualized changes in occipital SW density (from the rested to second partially restricted night) and residualized changes in next-day valence ratings. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were then performed. However, none of the models predicting emotional outcomes based on baseline or residualized changes in slow wave characteristics were significant. Conclusion: The lack of significant results is surprising in light of existing work demonstrating that SWS and SWA support adaptive emotional functioning in children but may be explained by the small sample size. The modest correlations observed nevertheless suggest potential relations worthy of follow-up investigations.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology, Clinical

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Rech, Megan Elizabeth

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alfano, Candice A

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Baran, Bengi
• Venta, Amanda C

• sleep
• emotional functioning
• children

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/17657

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/17657