Written by Abby O’ Connell. Edited by Tobias Constien.

Ensuring a peaceful night’s sleep for their little ones is very often a top priority for parents, particularly over the festive season. The end of the year typically disrupts a child’s usual routine, which can impact sleep quality: shorter sleep duration, more frequent night waking, or delayed onset of sleep (Mindell & Williamson, 2018). Aside from the benefit of giving parents a moment of peace amidst the festivities, good sleep is critical for infant cognitive development (Fadzil, 2021).

Here at the UCD Babylab, we have been focusing on the importance of sleep research for some time.

In the past few years, the UCD Babylab has studied sleep specifically in children who have been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. There is increasing recognition of the high prevalence of sleep issues in children with Tourette syndrome, a condition characterised by motor and vocal tics. In a recently published study from the UCD Babylab, former PhD student Lisa Keenan and colleagues (2024) investigated sleep and daytime functioning in children with Tourette syndrome using an “actiwatch”, which children wore on their wrists for two weeks. She found that relative to healthy children, children with Tourette syndrome had significantly increased time in bed, increased sleep onset latency, reduced sleep efficiency, and lower subjective sleep quality, but comparable actual sleep time.

Other research from the UCD Babylab also identified the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s sleep quality. Findings from a systematic review from former lab assistant Eleanor Colreavy and colleagues (2023), suggest that sleep patterns of children with Tourette syndrome may be more impacted by the pandemic than the average child. Given that there is generally more sleep issues reported in children with Tourette syndrome, they recommended further research in relation to the sleep health of children with Tourette syndrome in a post-pandemic era. By identifying sleep issues potentially persisting after COVID-19, the true impact of the pandemic on the sleep of children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome may be ascertained.

Currently in the UCD Babylab, we are working on a number of sleep related studies in typically developing children. One major area of interest for the upcoming year will be the impact of screen-related behaviours or screen-time on sleep and executive functioning. Current guidelines recommend keeping screen-time under one hour per day, ideally alongside an adult, for children aged between 2 and 5 years (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). However, as screens become more and more prevalent at home, in the form of smartphones, smart TVs, or tables, the actual usage often exceeds these recommendations. This can also negatively impact children’s sleep quality and their cognitive development, particularly when considering the nature of the viewing content (e.g., fast-paced, fantastical; Essex et al., 2022). These areas are largely unexplored despite their prevalence in the current increasingly digital environment and will be interesting to study in future research.

2025 will be a very busy year for us as we begin to recruit and continue to explore sleep behaviours, so keep an eye on the website and our social pages to learn how you can get involved! For now, we wish you a Happy Christmas and some good night’s sleep for the whole family.

References

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2016). Media and young minds. Pediatrics, 138(5), Article e20162591, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2591.

Colreavy, E., Keenan, L., & Downes, M. (2023). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sleep in children with Tourette syndrome in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 19(8), 1485-1493, https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.10628.

Essex, C., Gliga, T., Singh, M., & Smith, T. J. (2022). Understanding the differential impact of children’s TV on executive functions: A narrative-processing analysis. Infant Behavior and Development, 66, Article 101661, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101661.

Fadzil, A. (2021). Factors affecting the quality of sleep in children. Children, 8(2), Article 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/children8020122

Keenan, L., Bramham, J., Dinca, M., Coogan, A. N., & Downes, M. (2024). Sleep and daytime functioning in children with tourette syndrome: A two-week case-control study with actigraphy and cognitive assessments. Sleep Medicine, 113, 313-327, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2023.11.1137.

Mindell, J. A., & Williamson, A. A. (2018). Benefits of a bedtime routine in young children: Sleep, development, and beyond. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 40, 93-108, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.10.007.