ABSTRACT
Partial sleep deprivation has been consistently found to impair cognitive performance and, to an even greater extent, mood in adults (11). However, the impact of chronic partial sleep restriction in children and adolescents is not entirely clear. While it is widely assumed that sleep loss can induce irritability and behavioral disturbances in children, little empirical evidence exists to demonstrate a causal link between the two. Studies that have focused on examining the impact of sleep loss on daytime functioning in children and adolescents have typically utilized one of
three methodologies: (1) naturalistic, questionnaire-based studies to relate typical sleep duration to daytime functioning; (2) laboratory-based restriction of sleep during one night followed by objective neurobehavioral assessments; or (3) partial restriction of sleep over 3-7 nights followed by objective and/or subjective neurobehavioral assessments. Certainly, one night of in-laboratory sleep restriction can be expected to have different impact on a child’s daytime functioning than a more chronic course of mild sleep restriction. This chapter will examine the distinctions between these paradigms of assessing the impact of reduced sleep on children’s and adolescents’ functioning and will describe the impact of different forms of sleep loss on behavioral, cognitive, and affective functioning.
