Naps for Infant Memory Development

Age: < 18

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Disqualifiers: Premature birth, Developmental delays, Visual disability, others

No Placebo Group All trial participants will receive the active study treatment (no placebo)

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: 8

100 Participants Needed

What You Need to Know Before You Apply

What is the purpose of this trial?

This trial aims to understand how naps affect memory development in infants aged 9 to 15 months. Researchers will compare memory skills before and after naps by observing whether babies can imitate playing with a toy. Sleep patterns are monitored using a special watch and electrodes to track brain activity during naps. Infants who are 9 months old, born at a normal weight and term, and can return for follow-up visits in 3 and 6 months are ideal candidates for this trial. As an unphased study, this research offers a unique opportunity to contribute to understanding early childhood development.

Will I have to stop taking my current medications?

The trial information does not specify whether participants must stop taking their current medications.

What prior data suggests that this protocol is safe for infant memory development?

Research shows that biphasic sleep, which involves sleeping in two parts during the day, is a natural aspect of sleep changes as people age. From babies to older adults, sleep patterns evolve, and sleeping in two segments is common. Studies have found that this sleep pattern does not harm cognitive abilities.

However, some reports suggest that adults attempting biphasic sleep might experience lower sleep quality. They may take longer to fall asleep and spend more time in lighter sleep stages. These findings primarily apply to adults. Babies naturally have biphasic sleep, so it is generally considered safe for them.

For those considering participation in a study on biphasic sleep for babies, these findings suggest it should be well-tolerated. The study aims to understand how naps affect memory development, but this sleep pattern is already a normal part of how babies sleep. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

Why are researchers excited about this trial?

Researchers are excited about promoting biphasic sleep, specifically through naps, because it taps into the natural sleep patterns of infants, potentially enhancing memory development. Unlike standard care options that might focus on nighttime sleep routines, this approach emphasizes the benefits of daytime naps in boosting cognitive functions. By encouraging naps, researchers aim to understand how these short bursts of sleep can consolidate learning and memory more effectively in infants, potentially leading to new insights in early childhood development.

What evidence suggests that naps are effective for infant memory development?

This trial will compare the effects of promoting naps versus promoting wakefulness on infant memory development. Research has shown that naps play a crucial role in helping babies retain information. Studies indicate that babies who nap twice a day remember better than those who nap once. Sleep helps organize and strengthen new memories. Babies with regular nap times tend to remember better than when they skip naps. Thus, napping could be key to enhancing memory development in babies. ^{4 5 6 7 8}

Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?

This trial is for infants aged 9 to 15 months to explore how napping affects their memory. Infants must be healthy with no sleep disorders like narcolepsy. They'll wear a motion-detecting watch and have electrodes on their head during naps at the study visits, which happen every three months.

Inclusion Criteria

Infants must be willing and able to return for testing in 3 and 6 months (e.g., no plans to move out of the area)

My child is 9 months old.

My baby was born with a normal weight and at full term.

Exclusion Criteria

Infants with a score <85 on cognitive and language composite scales and/or <80 on the average of the two composites of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development Fourth Edition (BSID-IV) administered at the first session

Infants with motor development (gross and fine motor) assessed using the BSID-IV, and an adjusted cutoff of 73 will be used to exclude infants with significant motor delays

Infants receiving services due to developmental delays

Timeline for a Trial Participant

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

4 days

1 visit (in-person)

Initial Assessment

Infants are fitted with an actigraph watch and caregivers complete questionnaires

4 days

1 visit (in-person)

Wave 1 (9 months)

Infants undergo memory tasks and nap/wake conditions are tested

1 week

2 visits (in-person)

Wave 2 (12 months)

Procedures from Wave 1 are repeated at 12 months

1 week

2 visits (in-person)

Wave 3 (15 months)

Procedures from Wave 1 are repeated at 15 months

1 week

2 visits (in-person)

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for memory accuracy and developmental changes

3 months

What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?

Interventions

• Biphasic Sleep

Trial Overview

The study tests if there's a change in how babies remember things before and after they nap. Researchers will see if the way infants imitate actions with toys changes over time, from ages 9 to 15 months, by observing them before and after morning or afternoon naps.

How Is the Trial Designed?

Group I: Wake (non-nap) Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

Wake is promoted

Group II: Nap Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

Naps are promoted

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Lead Sponsor

Trials

83

Recruited

3,474,000+

University of Maryland, College Park

Collaborator

Trials

163

Recruited

46,800+

Published Research Related to This Trial

A study involving 63 preschool children found that naps can initially destabilize emotional memories, which may help prepare them for better consolidation during overnight sleep.

When children napped after learning emotional information, they recognized fewer negative faces if they had to complete an interference task, suggesting that naps may not fully protect emotional memories from interference but instead facilitate their processing for later consolidation.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Early childhood naps initiate emotional memory processing in preparation for enhanced overnight consolidation. Hanron, O., Mason, GM., Holmes, JF., et al.[2023]

3-month-old infants can only remember a cartoon face for 1.5-2 hours after seeing it if they have a period of sleep following the learning, indicating that sleep is crucial for memory consolidation even in very young children.

The study found a negative correlation between habituation time and the density of sleep spindles in infants, suggesting that specific sleep patterns may enhance cognitive processing speed.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Memory in 3-month-old infants benefits from a short nap. Horváth, K., Hannon, B., Ujma, PP., et al.[2019]

Classroom naps significantly enhance memory retention in preschool children, particularly for those who nap regularly, compared to equivalent time spent awake.

Physiological recordings indicate that sleep spindles during naps play a crucial role in memory performance, suggesting that short naps are important for effective learning in early childhood.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Sleep spindles in midday naps enhance learning in preschool children. Kurdziel, L., Duclos, K., Spencer, RM.[2021]

Infants who took both morning and afternoon naps showed better memory retention compared to those who stayed awake in the morning, indicating that two naps per day are beneficial for memory development at 9 months of age.

The study found that morning wakefulness negatively impacted memory retention after an afternoon nap, suggesting that skipping the morning nap can disrupt the relationship between nap physiology and memory performance.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The memory benefits of two naps per day during infancy: A pilot investigation. Mason, GM., Kurdziel, LBF., Spencer, RMC.[2022]

Polysomnography (PSG) is a valuable tool for studying how sleep, particularly naps, aids memory consolidation in early childhood, as it provides detailed insights into sleep quality and architecture.

The study protocol combines PSG with behavioral assessments and parent reports to effectively evaluate the impact of sleep on memory performance in preschool children, highlighting the transition from biphasic to monophasic sleep patterns.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Measuring Neural Mechanisms Underlying Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation During Naps in Early Childhood. Allard, T., Riggins, T., Ewell, A., et al.[2021]

Daytime napping significantly enhances word learning in 16-month-old infants, as shown by improved performance in a preferential looking task after a nap compared to those who remained awake.

The increase in performance after napping was positively correlated with the infants' expressive vocabulary size, suggesting that naps play a crucial role in cognitive development and language acquisition.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Napping facilitates word learning in early lexical development. Horváth, K., Myers, K., Foster, R., et al.[2018]

Eighteen-month-old infants who napped after learning an artificial language retained specific memories better than those who did not nap, indicating that sleep enhances memory retention.

Napping also helped these infants generalize learned patterns to new vocabulary, suggesting that sleep plays a crucial role in developing abstract memory processes.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Developmental changes in retention and generalization of nonadjacent dependencies over a period containing sleep in 18-mo-old infants. Sweeney, LM., Lara, H., Gómez, RL.[2023]

This review identifies and cites eleven Spanish literary texts from the 13th to 19th centuries that reference biphasic sleep, confirming its historical prevalence in pre-industrial societies, as noted by historian A. Ekirch.

Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' provides a detailed description of biphasic sleep, illustrating how it relates to the characters' temperaments and lifestyles, supporting the idea that this sleep pattern is physiological and adaptable to different lifestyles.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

[Don Quixote de la Mancha and the description of biphasic sleep in Spanish literature]. Balcarce-Bautista, PE.[2023]

A study involving 22 children showed that taking a nap after learning improved their performance on a storybook task compared to staying awake, indicating naps can enhance declarative learning.

The improvement in performance was linked to the amount of slow wave sleep during the nap, suggesting that this type of sleep plays a crucial role in consolidating episodic memory in young children.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Slow wave sleep in naps supports episodic memories in early childhood. Lokhandwala, S., Spencer, RMC.[2021]

Infants who napped shortly after training (Nap First group) showed significantly better learning outcomes, requiring fewer prompts and solving a task faster than those who napped later (Delay First group).

This study suggests that timely naps are crucial for memory consolidation in newly-walking infants, indicating that sleep not only protects memories but actively enhances learning.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Nap timing makes a difference: Sleeping sooner rather than later after learning improves infants' locomotor problem solving. DeMasi, A., Horger, MN., Allia, AM., et al.[2022]

Infants spend a significant amount of their first year sleeping, and recent studies suggest that this sleep plays a crucial role in how they process and store memories.

Timely and extended napping is linked to better memory encoding and long-term storage, indicating that sleep is essential for forming knowledge networks in infants.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The effect of napping and nighttime sleep on memory in infants. Konrad, C., Seehagen, S.[2021]

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