The snoring and health problems it creates are a problem that is believed to be reserved for adults. But new research reveals that snoring children also suffer during waking hours.
Children who snore regularly show signs of structural changes in the brain that can lead to behavioral problems, such as lack of focus, hyperactivity, and cognitive challenges, to the detriment of their education.
The new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, first observed that children who snored three or more times a week had a finer gray matter in their brain compared to children who slept normally. Sleep deprivation has been shown to reduce gray matter, the densest areas of the brain of neurons, which play a critical role in day-to-day activities, especially in terms of impulse control and reasoning skills.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine examined MRI images of more than 10,000 children ages 9 to 10 enrolled in the National Institute of Health’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study ), a long-term project to track children’s brain health in the US.
“These brain changes are similar to what you would see in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,” said lead author Amal Isaiah. “Children have loss of cognitive control, which is additionally associated with disruptive behavior.”
According to the researchers, obstructive sleep disorders, including snoring, mouth breathing, and respiratory pauses during sleep, affect up to 10% of American children (more than 7 million). They added that a “significant” portion of these cases can be misdiagnosed as ADHD and treated with stimulants, which can further complicate sleep.
“If you have a child who snores more than twice a week, you need to evaluate him,” Isaiah advised. “We now have strong structural evidence of 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. Co-author Linda Chang said “timely recognition” of the number is key.
“We know the brain has the ability to repair itself, especially in children,” Chang said. “More research is needed to validate these mechanisms for these relationships, which may also lead to new treatment approaches.”
Now, if scientists could only find a formula to simply convince children to go to bed, an often futile effort that causes parents to lose up to six days of sleep a year.