There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping child, and it can also be very sweet to hear your retired child snore every now and then.
But if your child snores a few days a week, it’s something to pay close attention to, according to a major new study. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, found a link between frequent snoring and structural brain changes in children, as well as behavioral issues such as hyperactivity and inattention.
Researchers looked at data from MRI brain images of more than 10,000 9- to 10-year-olds in the United States, as well as data from parents of those children on how often their children snore and use standard checklists to differentiate areas of childhood measure. behavior.
The researchers found that children who normally snore – three or more times a week – have thinner gray matter on various parts of their brain, including those that help manage reasoning and impulse control.
‘These are parts of the brain that are responsible for behavioral regulation. … It applies to the maintenance of attention and what we call ‘cognitive flexibility’, which is basically the regulation of your own behavior, ”said researcher Dr. Amal Isaiah, associate professor of otorhinolaryngology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said. HuffPost.
Regular snorers also show the increasing severity of ‘problem behavior’, he added.
“I can not say here is a cause and effect,” Isaiah said. “But from a biological perspective, if you think about snoring, it means air is not flowing freely.” This can mean that children wake up regularly, or it can change the way children’s blood transports oxygen to their brains, which means they do not get enough of it. And it is possible that one of the mechanisms (or both) may be behind the link between changes in brain structure and behavior of children, he assumed.
Estimates indicate that almost 30% of children snore less than occasionally, while between 10% and 12% of children experience primary snoring – or snoring that occurs more than two nights a week, and that occurs frequently during the night. A smaller percentage of children struggle with obstructive sleep apnea, which is a more serious sleep disorder that causes someone to repeatedly stop and breathe while sleeping.
The new findings are not the first to link snoring to brain changes and possible behavioral issues in children, but it is the largest study to date to confirm the link, Isaiah said.
He noted that the findings significantly reinforce the leadership of the American Academy of Pediatrics that parents should take children’s snoring seriously.
The group has long said that it is important for parents and caregivers of regular snorers to talk to their child’s healthcare provider about it because it can affect their sleep so disruptively, on which children depend in so many ways.
And as with adults, snoring can be treated in children. In some cases, it is necessary to remove a child’s tonsils and adenoids, which can obstruct the airway. In other cases, simple adjustments to a child’s sleeping environment may be enough to alleviate snoring or at least reduce the chance that children will become fragmented. These types of changes can be really quite simple, such as setting up a consistent sleeping scheme and setting up children’s bedrooms as quietly and comfortably as possible, says the Sleep Foundation.
Ultimately, the message for parents of snorers is not to panic, but also not to ignore the matter altogether.
“You do not have to run to the treatment now, but it is something you have to collect at the pediatrician,” Isaiah said.