Poster #17 - Sleep Restriction in Children: Effect of Chronotype on Emotional Responses

• In Event: Poster Session 11

Abstract

Background: Sleep loss is well-known to undermine emotional health. Research in adolescents and adults further suggests that the adverse mental health effects of sleep loss are amplified by an eveningness chronotype (Talbot et al., 2010). However, this individual risk factor has not, to our knowledge, been examined in pre-pubertal children. We therefore explored whether parent-reported chronotype (i.e., individual differences in circadian phase preference) might serve to moderate the effects of two night of partial sleep restriction on emotional experiences, reactivity and regulation among a sample of pre-pubertal children. Methods: N=53 healthy children ages 7-11 years (M = 9.09 years, SD = 1.43), Tanner stages 1 and 2, completed a 2-night partial sleep restriction protocol (7 hours and 6 hours) following a week of typical sleep assessed with actigraphy. Children also completed two in-lab emotional assessments; the first after a 10-hour sleep opportunity at home (monitored with PSG) and another after the second sleep restriction night. Assessments utilized parallel, counterbalanced emotional tasks that included viewing images from the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS) and watching several emotional movie clips. Subjective emotional reactivity was assessed during both tasks and objective emotion regulation (via respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) was assessed during the movie task during which children were asked to try to modify (i.e., hide) their emotional expressions. Parents completed the validated and reliable Children’s Chronotype Questionnaire (CCTQ; Werner et al., 2009) at a baseline assessment. Results: Children’s chronotype was not a significant moderator of changes in self-reported emotional arousal in response to either negative or positive IAPS images after sleep restriction compared to when children were well rested (p < .05). Similarly, chronotype did not significantly moderate the effects of sleep restriction in emotional arousal or objective emotion regulation (RSA) during the movie task (p < .05). Conclusions: Despite overwhelming evidence that inadequate sleep poses serious risks to physical and mental health, limited research has explored individual factors that moderate sleep-based risk in children. Contrary to findings in adolescents and adults, chronotype did not moderate the effects of two nights of sleep restriction on subjective or objective emotional responding even though children show a similar (normal) distribution of CCTQ scores as adults (Werner et al., 2019). Findings suggest that the pre-pubertal years may represent a critical developmental window to address sleep-related risk toward mitigating the onset of affective psychopathology in adolescence.

Authors

• Jinu Kim, University of Houston
  Presenting Author

• Anthony Cifre, University of Houston

• Megan Rech, University of Houston

• Annika Myers

• Candice A Alfano, University of Houston