ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2015, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (9): 1560-1567.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2015.01560

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Understanding the Effects of Sleep on Children’s Executive Functions

WANG Tianyu; WANG Mingyi   

  1. (Department of Psychology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China)
  • Received:2014-08-14 Online:2015-09-15 Published:2015-09-15
  • Contact: WANG Mingyi, E-mail: wang_mingyi@163.com

Abstract:

Recent research has shown that both sleep duration and sleep quality could affect the development of children’s executive functions. Under natural conditions, sleep quality tends to be a real-time influence factor, sleep duration has a delayed influence on the executive functions. While under experimental control, a small extension of sleep duration would improve children’s executive functions. Sleep-disordered breathing, which causes harm to children’s executive functions, has been most extensively researched in the area of sleeping disorders. However, there is no consistent conclusion so far due to the different research methods. The effects of sleep on children’s executive functions would gradually reduce with age. Furthermore, other factors could play a role, such as genes and family socioeconomic status. Future studies should pay attention to the shifting component of executive functions.

Key words: children, sleep duration, sleep quality, sleep-disordered breathing, executive functions