Snoring – and the health problems it creates – is a problem that is supposed to be reserved for adults. But new research shows that snoring children also suffer during waking hours.
Children who snore regularly show signs of structural changes in their brains that can lead to behavioral problems, such as lack of concentration, hyperactivity, and cognitive challenges – to the detriment of their education.
The new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found for the first time that children who snore three or more times a week had thinner gray matter in their brains compared to children who slept normally. Poor sleep has been shown to reduce gray matter, the densest areas of the brain full of neurons, which play a critical role in daily activities, especially in terms of impulse control and reasoning skills.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine analyzed MRI images of more than 10,000 children between the ages of 9 and 10 who are enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study at the National Institutes of Health or the ABCD Study. a long-term project to track children’s brains. health in the USA.
“These brain changes are similar to those you would see in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,” said lead author Dr. Amal Isaiah. “Children lose the loss of cognitive control, which is further associated with disruptive behavior.”
Obstructive sleep disorders, including snoring, shortness of breath and pauses in sleep, affect up to 10 percent of American children – more than 7 million – according to researchers. They added that a “significant” portion of these cases could be misdiagnosed as having ADHD and treated with stimulants – further complicating sleep.
“If you have a child who snores more than twice a week, that child should be evaluated,” Isaiah advised. We now have strong structural evidence from brain imaging to reinforce the importance of diagnosing and treating sleep-disordered breathing in children.
Isaiah called the project “the largest study of its kind detailing the association between snoring and brain abnormalities.”
For most, the condition can be corrected by tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy. “Timely recognition” of the problem is critical, said co-author Dr. Linda Chang.
“We know that the brain has the ability to repair itself, especially in children,” Chang said. More research is needed to validate such mechanisms for these relationships, which may also lead to further approaches to treatment.
Now, if scientists could only find a formula that would persuade children to go to bed in the first place – an often futile effort that sees parents lose up to six days of sleep a year.