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