At ages 1 and 1-1/2, children who get most of their sleep at
night (as opposed to during the day) do better in a variety of
skill areas than children who don't sleep as much at night.
That's the finding of a new longitudinal study conducted by
researchers at the University of Montreal and the University of
Minnesota. The research appears in the November/December 2010
issue of the journal Child Development. The study, of 60
Canadian children at ages 1, 1-1/2, and 2, looked at the effects
of infants' sleep on executive functioning. Among children,
executive functioning includes the ability to control impulses,
remember things, and show mental flexibility. Executive
functioning develops rapidly between ages 1 and 6, but little is
known about why certain children are better than others at
acquiring these skills. "We found that infants' sleep is
associated with cognitive functions that depend on brain
structures that develop rapidly in the first two years of life,"
explains Annie Bernier, professor of psychology a