The impact of sleep disruption on executive function in Down syndrome.
In teens and young adults with Down syndrome, parent-reported sleep problems predict weaker executive skills—screen BMI and sleep now.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked parents of teens and young adults with Down syndrome about sleep. They also gave short tests of executive function like remembering rules and switching tasks.
No treatment was given. They simply looked at whether kids with worse parent-reported sleep also scored lower on the tests.
What they found
More nightly sleep problems went hand-in-hand with weaker executive skills. The worse the sleep, the lower the scores on planning and shifting tasks.
How this fits with other research
Hong et al. (2021) pooled 57 studies and showed big executive-function deficits are normal in Down syndrome. The new sleep link adds a daily-life factor that may make those deficits worse.
Lee et al. (2020) took the next step. They scanned brains and found youth with DS plus sleep problems had smaller brain volumes. Poor sleep may therefore both hurt skills and track with physical brain changes.
Storch et al. (2012) saw the same sleep-cognition pattern in autism. The pattern looks opposite because the diagnoses differ, but the rule is the same: broken sleep predicts weaker thinking skills across groups.
Why it matters
If you work with teens or young adults with Down syndrome, ask about bedtime routines, snoring, and night waking at every visit. A simple parent questionnaire can flag kids who need medical sleep care. Fixing sleep may protect the executive skills your programs target.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The high prevalence of sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnea, is well established in children with Down syndrome. However, only a few studies have focused on older children and young adults in this population. Given the presence of sleep disorders and the early emergence of Alzheimer's disease, more work is needed to examine the relationship between sleep and cognition in Down syndrome. Twenty-nine adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome participated in the present study. Parents reported on their sleep difficulties using a well-validated measure of sleep problems in intellectual disabilities. Based on theoretical models linking obstructive sleep apnea to prefrontal cortex dysfunction, we tested components of executive functions that have been shown to be impaired in previous studies of Down syndrome. First, results indicate that participants with Down syndrome with higher body mass index also had increased caregiver reports of sleep apnea symptoms. Individuals with high ratings of sleep disruption also showed greater difficulties with executive function. These results suggest that sleep disruption may place this set of functions at risk in young adults. Future work should examine if this risk may result in earlier onset of dementia or steeper decline with Alzheimer's disease. Further, additional studies are needed to investigate the effect of exercise interventions and weight reduction on sleep disorders in this population.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.03.009