Unprecedented Research Probes the Relationship Between Sleep and Memory in Napping Babies and Young Children

The hippocampus is the short-term location for memories before they move to the cortex for long-term storage. Naps allow children with an immature hippocampus to process memories. Young children give up their afternoon nap, not based on their age, but their brain development, Spencer hypothesizes. "Naps are beneficial to everybody. Naps protect memory for everybody, no matter what age. Kids who are habitual nappers really need the nap. If they don't nap, they get catastrophic forgetting. That's the difference between habitual and non-habitual nappers - not how good is the nap, but how bad is staying awake," Spencer explains.

Adds Riggins, "In the end, being able to tell parents that those little deviations from routine that keep their children from napping might not have these huge implications for a neurotypical child in the long run would be great. And, the more we know about how the brain works in a typically developing child during this nap transition, the more we will be able to know about where we could possibly intervene to help neurodiverse children-like children with autism and ADHD, whose sleep patterns tend to be disrupted-since we will have some sort of scientific basis."

The research team is recruiting 180 children, ages 3 to 5 years. The researchers will track their brain development, memory performance and nap status over the course of one year at three checkpoints. During the first and second sessions, the children will wear activity-tracking watches and EEG equipment to record naps and overnight sleep. They will also play memory games before and after naps. The children will undergo an MRI brain scan during the third session.

Monica and David Dumlao, of Chicopee, Mass., signed up their son Miles, 4, for the preschool study after watching the Netflix documentary series, "Babies," which featured Spencer in the episode about sleep. "We like learning about the neuroscience behind brain development," Monica Dumlao said at a recent study session in Spencer's lab. "We thought this was a good opportunity to contribute to the science about the importance of naps."

In the three-part infant study on nap transitions and memory, Spencer is studying the period before and after babies transition from two naps-one in the morning and one in the afternoon-to one, richer afternoon nap. She is recruiting 140 infants 7 to 9 months old. The babies will play a memory game before and after their naps. Their brain activity will be recorded during their naps using a noninvasive electrode cap. The sessions will take place at 9, 12 and 15 months.

"We think as they are getting ready to drop the morning nap, staying awake in that morning interval will be less and less damaging to their memory," Spencer says. "But we don't think that's going to happen with the afternoon nap at this age. We think the afternoon nap stays superimportant."

Parents interested in participating in the preschool sleep study are invited to fill out a screening form here; the screening form for the infant nap study is available here.