Jane F. Gaultney

The Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in College Students: Impact on Academic Performance

Abstract Objective: To examine the prevalence of risk for sleep disorders among college students by gender and age, and their associations with grade point average (GPA). Participants: Participants were 1,845 college students at a large, southeastern public university. Methods: A validated sleep disorder questionnaire surveyed sleep data during the 2007–2008 academic year. Students’ GPAs were obtained from the office of the registrar. Results: Twenty-seven percent of students were at risk for at least one sleep disorder. African American and Asian students reported less risk for insomnia and fewer poor sleep practices relative to white and Latino students. Students reported insufficient sleep and a discrepancy between weekday and weekend amount of sleep. Students at risk for sleep disorders were overrepresented among students in academic jeopardy (GPA < 2.0). Conclusions: Many college students are at risk for sleep disorders, and those at risk may also be at risk for academic failure.

Developmental differences in the acquisition and maintenance of an organizational strategy: Evidence for the utilization deficiency hypothesis ☆

Abstract Kindergartners (6-year-olds), third graders (9-uear-olds), and eighth graders (13-year-olds) received five free-recall trials using different lists with different categories over trials. Levels of recall and clustering increased with age. Although both third and eighth graders demonstrated the use of an organizational strategy, this led to increased performance only for the eighth graders. These results and age differences in the patterns of changes in recall and clustering over trials suggested that the third-grade children demonstrated a utilization deficiency, a transitional phase in strategy development, when spontaneous production of a strategy results in little or no benefit in performance.

Sleep, Impulse Control, and Sensation-Seeking Predict Delinquent Behavior in Adolescents, Emerging Adults, and Adults

PURPOSE The present study examined delinquent behavior from adolescence into adulthood within the dual systems model of adolescent risk-taking, which identifies maturational patterns of socioemotional and cognitive control systems as predictors of risk-taking. The role of sleep was also investigated within the relationship. METHODS Hierarchical regression and path analysis examined delinquency at three waves (1996, 2001, and 2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. RESULTS Impulse control and sensation-seeking predicted concurrent delinquent behavior at all three waves, demonstrating the developmental shift as described within the dual systems model in which the relative contribution of sensation-seeking decreases from adolescence into adulthood, whereas the relative contribution of impulse control improves. Data also revealed that sleep duration and delayed bedtimes had both direct and indirect associations with delinquent behavior during adolescence; sleep duration did not directly predict such activity during later waves. CONCLUSION The dual systems model of adolescent risk-taking appears to be predictive of delinquent behavior during adolescence and the transition into adulthood. Preliminary findings suggest the importance of considering both adolescent sleep and cognitive and socioemotional development during research and prevention efforts of delinquent behavior.

Parent-Reported Periodic Limb Movement, Sleep Disordered Breathing, Bedtime Resistance Behaviors, and ADHD

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative strength of association between symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with sleep disordered breathing (SDB), periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), and bedtime resistance behaviors (BRBs). The Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire was completed by parents of 283 children. Scales were derived to indicate risk for specific sleep disorders, then correlated with symptoms of ADHD. Strong independent interrelationships between symptoms of PLMD and symptoms of ADHD emerged, with potential additional contributions by bedtime resistance. These interrelationships remained after controlling for age, SDB, sleepiness, or BRBs. These data suggest ADHD symptoms may be especially related to PLMD but that insufficient sleep duration secondary to bedtime resistance and noncompliance may make an independent contribution.

Inhibition and Mental Effort in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The efficiency of cognitive inhibition was contrasted in children diagnosed with ADHD and a control group of age- and IQ-matched average children. Two tasks were used to measure inhibitory ability: the negative-prime Stroop task and a directed-forgetting memory task. Based on contemporary theoretical perspectives that postulate deficits in inhibitory function in the ADHD population, it was predicted that ADHD children would be significantly less efficient inhibitors than the average children. Contrary to predictions, however, ADHD children showed no deficits in inhibitory abilities compared to controls. Average children were faster on the second administration of the Stroop task, whereas ADHD children were slower. These results were interpreted within the framework of the inhibition models. It was proposed that differences in inhibitory abilities, such as the ones tapped here, may appear earlier than age 8, and that the engaging aspects of tasks may have optimized the ADHD childrens performance. The slower performance of the ADHD group on the second administration of the Stroop task is consistent with the hypothesis that although ADHD children can inhibit, they find it more effortful to do so than do average children.

Possible insomnia predicts some risky behaviors among adolescents when controlling for depressive symptoms

ABSTRACT This study investigated whether previously reported links between sleep and risk taking among adolescents (E. M. O’Brien & J. A. Mindell, 2005) are associated—concurrently, longitudinally, or both—with sleep or underlying depression. The present study analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 4,353 adolescents in the United States who had participated in Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (J. R. Udry, 1998). In the present study, grade, gender, depressive symptoms, and possible insomnia served as predictor variables to calculate the odds ratios for 4 categories of risky behaviors. After the authors accounted for other predictors, possible insomnia significantly predicted smoking, delinquency (within each wave but not longitudinally), and drinking and driving (Wave II and longitudinally). Possible insomnia may contribute to some types of risky behaviors over the effects of depressive symptoms.

Giftedness and variability in strategic processing on a multitrial memory task: Evidence for stability in gifted cognition

Abstract This study examined strategic variability and variability-performance relations in intellectually gifted (mean IQ = 142.31; n = 85) and non-gifted (mean IQ = 112.44; n = 81) children who received five trials on an organizational memory task. Children were presented with different sets of categorizable words (e.g., boat, bus, car, banana, apple, orange) on each trial and were asked to remember the words for later recall. Four strategies were coded on each trial: sorting at study, rehearsal, category naming, and clustering at recall. Strategic variability was assessed in terms of fluctuations in the use of single strategies over trials, use of different combinations of multiple strategies over trials, and trial-bytrial switches in strategy use. In general, gifted children showed lower levels of variability (or higher levels of stability) in strategy use and higher levels of recall than non-gifted children. In addition, stability in strategy use was consistently associated with relatively high levels of recall for gifted but not non-gifted children. These findings confirm and extend research on non-strategic elementary cognitive tasks showing that cognitive stability is a prominent characteristic of gifted cognition.

The role of children's expertise in a strategic memory task☆

Abstract In a study intended to replicate and extend the findings from a recent experiment by Schneider and Bjorklund (1992) , the expert/novice paradigm was used with second- and fourth-grade children in a sort/recall task. Children were classified as experts or novices for their knowledge of baseball, then given two sort/recall tasks, with a list consisting of either baseball or nonbaseball terms. Experts recalled more than novices on the baseball list only. While both groups used organizational strategies at sorting on the nonbaseball list, experts were marginally more strategic than novices on the baseball list, and no differences were found between the groups on either list for clustering. Baseball experts used more adultlike categories, suggesting that their enhanced levels of recall were attributed in part to strategy use, although there was also evidence that most of the substantial recall difference between the groups was attributed to item-specific effects associated with a more elaborated knowledge base. A second experiment using fifth-grade children on a multitrial sort/recall task using the baseball list also found increased recall by experts, and also found evidence of strategic behavior at the sort phase for trials 3 and 4.

Sleep Characteristics, Body Mass Index, and Risk for Hypertension in Young Adolescents

Inadequate sleep has been identified as a risk factor for a variety of health consequences. For example, short sleep durations and daytime sleepiness, an indicator of insufficient sleep and/or poor sleep quality, have been identified as risk factors for hypertension in the adult population. However, less evidence exists regarding whether these relationships hold within child and early adolescent samples and what factors mediate the relationship between sleep and risk for hypertension. Using data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the present study examined body mass index (BMI) as a possible mediator for the effects of school-night sleep duration, weekend night sleep duration, and daytime sleepiness on risk for hypertension in a sample of sixth graders. The results demonstrated gender-specific patterns. Among boys, all three sleep characteristics predicted BMI and yielded significant indirect effects on risk for hypertension. Oppositely, only daytime sleepiness predicted BMI among girls and yielded a significant indirect effect on risk for hypertension. The findings provide clarification for the influence of sleep on the risk for hypertension during early adolescence and suggest a potential need for gender-specific designs in future research and application endeavors.

Pediatric periodic limb movement disorder: sleep symptom and polysomnographic correlates compared to obstructive sleep apnea.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Although periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS) have been described in multiple pediatric publications, periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) has not. The aims of this study were to describe the prevalence, sleep-related correlates, and polysomnographic correlates of PLMD in a large pediatric case series, and compare these to pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). METHODS All PLMD cases (defined by International Classification of Sleep Disorders, 2nd edition criteria + respiratory disturbance index [RDI] < 3) and OSA cases (defined by RDI ≥ 3 + PLMS < 5), from a single pediatric sleep practice, over a 2-year time span, were included. Chart, questionnaire, and polysomnographic data were compiled. Of 468 referred children, 66 PLMD cases were identified (14%). RESULTS The PLMD cases, mean age 8.1 years (range 1-17), were clinically characterized by frequent sleep onset and maintenance problems, difficulty awakening, restless sleep, leg pain/discomfort at night, and parasomnias. Compared to 90 OSA children, those with PLMD had a history of significantly more sleep onset and maintenance problems, leg pain/discomfort at night, parasomnias, getting out of bed at night, and family history of restless legs syndrome. Polysomnographically, PLMD cases had more awakenings, stage 1 sleep, stage shifts, and spontaneous arousals. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that pediatric PLMD has important clinical and polysomnographic correlates. In addition, PLMD has many characteristics that are different from pediatric OSA, suggesting that PLMD is a distinct pediatric sleep disorder, of which clinicians should be aware.