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Sleep problems in children 'lowers IQ'24 August 2006 Children with sleeping problems that result in interrupted breathing also appear to suffer from learning difficulties, scientists have claimed. In a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Centre in the US, children suffering from untreated sleep apnoea were found to experience damage in two areas of the brain linked to learning ability. Scientists found that children with severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), characterised by interrupted sleep patterns, snoring and difficulty breathing at night, had damage to the hippocampus and right frontal cortex in the brain. The hippocampus is a part of the brain which is responsible for learning and memory storage, while the right frontal cortex looks after higher-level thinking. During the study, 19 children with OSA were compared to 12 children without the disorder, using IQ tests and other brain performance tests. The researchers found that children with OSA had lower average IQ results and performed worse on the other tests, which measured things such as verbal working memory and word fluency. "This should be a wake-up call to both parents and doctors that undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnoea might hurt children's brains," said lead author Dr Ann Halbower. "This is truly concerning because we saw changes that suggest brain injury in areas of the brain that house critical cognitive functions, such as attention, learning and working memory." Previous studies had revealed a link between low IQ and sleep apnoea in children, although this study was the first to suggest brain injury is linked to the effect. More information
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