The Circadian Response to Evening Light Spectra in Early Childhood: Preliminary Insights.

Although the sensitivity of the circadian system to the characteristics of light (e.g., biological timing, intensity, duration, spectrum) has been well studied in adults, data in early childhood remain limited.

Differences in the pupillary responses to evening light between children and adolescents.

Background: In the mammalian retina, intrinsically-photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC) detect light and integrate signals from rods and cones to drive multiple non-visual functions including circadian entrainment and the pupillary light response (PLR). Non-visual photoreception and consequently non-visual sensitivity to light may change across child development. The PLR represents a quick and reliable method for examining non-visual responses to light in children.

Data-driven mathematical modeling of sleep consolidation in early childhood.

Across early childhood development, sleep behavior transitions from a biphasic pattern (a daytime nap and nighttime sleep) to a monophasic pattern (only nighttime sleep). The transition to consolidated nighttime sleep, which occurs in most children between 2- and 5-years-old, is a major developmental milestone and reflects interactions between the developing homeostatic sleep drive and circadian system. Using a physiologically-based mathematical model of the sleep-wake regulatory network constrained by observational and experimental data from preschool-aged participants, we analyze how developmentally-mediated changes in the homeostatic sleep drive may contribute to the transition from napping to non-napping sleep patterns.

Wake EEG oscillation dynamics reflect both sleep need and brain maturation across childhood and adolescence.

An objective measure of brain maturation is highly insightful for monitoring both typical and atypical development. Slow wave activity, recorded in the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG), reliably indexes changes in brain plasticity with age, as well as deficits related to developmental disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Unfortunately, measuring sleep EEG is resource-intensive and burdensome for participants.

Biological and behavioral pathways from prenatal depression to offspring cardiometabolic risk: Testing the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis.

Given prior literature focused on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease framework, there is strong rationale to hypothesize that reducing depression in the prenatal period will cause improvements in offspring cardiometabolic health. The current review outlines evidence that prenatal depression is associated with offspring cardiometabolic risk and health behaviors. We review evidence of these associations in humans and in nonhuman animals at multiple developmental periods, from the prenatal period (maternal preeclampsia, gestational diabetes), neonatal period (preterm birth, small size at birth), infancy (rapid weight gain), childhood and adolescence (high blood pressure, impaired glucose-insulin homeostasis, unfavorable lipid profiles, abdominal obesity), and into adulthood (diabetes, cardiovascular disease).

Understanding risk and causal mechanisms for developing obesity in infants and young children: A National Institutes of Health workshop.

Obesity in children remains a major public health problem, with the current prevalence in youth ages 2-19 years estimated to be 19.7%. Despite progress in identifying risk factors, current models do not accurately predict development of obesity in early childhood.

Factors contributing to U.S. parents' decisions to administer melatonin to children.

Objective: Pediatric melatonin use is increasingly prevalent in the U.S. despite limited research on its efficacy and long-term safety.

Theratyping cystic fibrosis patients to guide elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor out-of-label prescription.

Background: Around 20% of people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) do not have access to the triple combination elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) in Europe because they do not carry the F508del allele on the CF transmembrane conductance regulator () gene. Considering that pwCF carrying rare variants may benefit from ETI, including variants already validated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a compassionate use programme was launched in France. PwCF were invited to undergo a nasal brushing to investigate whether the pharmacological rescue of CFTR activity by ETI in human nasal epithelial cell (HNEC) cultures was predictive of the clinical response.

Differences in the Pupillary Responses to Evening Light between Children and Adolescents.

Purpose: To assess differences in the pupillary light responses (PLRs) to blue and red evening lights between children and adolescents.

Methods: Forty healthy participants (8-9 years, n=21; 15-16 years, n=19) completed a PLR assessment 1 h before their habitual bedtime. After a 1 h dim-light adaptation period (<1 lux), baseline pupil diameter was measured in darkness for 30 s, followed by a 10 s exposure to 3.

Sleep Health at the Genomic Level: Six Distinct Factors and Their Relationships With Psychopathology.

Background: Poor sleep is associated with many negative health outcomes, including multiple dimensions of psychopathology. In the past decade, sleep researchers have advocated for focusing on the concept of sleep health as a modifiable health behavior to mitigate or prevent these outcomes. Sleep health dimensions often include sleep efficiency, duration, satisfaction, regularity, timing, and daytime alertness.

Modeling the Effects of Napping and Non-napping Patterns of Light Exposure on the Human Circadian Oscillator.

In early childhood, consolidation of sleep from a biphasic to a monophasic sleep-wake pattern, that is, the transition from sleeping during an afternoon nap and at night to sleeping only during the night, represents a major developmental milestone. Reduced napping behavior is associated with an advance in the timing of the circadian system; however, it is unknown if this advance represents a standard response of the circadian clock to altered patterns of light exposure or if it additionally reflects features of the developing circadian system. Using a mathematical model of the human circadian pacemaker, we investigated the impact of napping and non-napping patterns of light exposure on entrained circadian phases.

Pediatric sleep: current knowledge, gaps, and opportunities for the future.

This White Paper addresses the current gaps in knowledge, as well as opportunities for future studies in pediatric sleep. The Sleep Research Society's Pipeline Development Committee assembled a panel of experts tasked to provide information to those interested in learning more about the field of pediatric sleep, including trainees. We cover the scope of pediatric sleep, including epidemiological studies and the development of sleep and circadian rhythms in early childhood and adolescence.

Creating the Cave: Conducting Circadian Science in Early Childhood.

In humans, physiological outputs of the body's internal clock (i.e., saliva, serum, and temperature) can be collected to quantify the timing of the circadian system.

Keeping an eye on circadian time in clinical research and medicine.

Background: Daily rhythms are observed in humans and almost all other organisms. Most of these observed rhythms reflect both underlying endogenous circadian rhythms and evoked responses from behaviours such as sleep/wake, eating/fasting, rest/activity, posture changes and exercise. For many research and clinical purposes, it is important to understand the contribution of the endogenous circadian component to these observed rhythms.

Evening Light Intensity and Phase Delay of the Circadian Clock in Early Childhood.

Late sleep timing is prevalent in early childhood and a risk factor for poor behavioral and health outcomes. Sleep timing is influenced by the phase of the circadian clock, with later circadian timing linked to delayed sleep onset in young children. Light is the strongest zeitgeber of circadian timing and, in adults, evening light produces circadian phase delay in an intensity-dependent manner.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's sleep habits: an ECHO study.

Background: Sleep in childhood is affected by behavioral, environmental, and parental factors. We propose that these factors were altered during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigates sleep habit changes during the pandemic in 528 children 4-12 years old in the US, leveraging data from the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

Profiling the response to lumacaftor-ivacaftor in children with cystic between fibrosis and new insight from a French-Italian real-life cohort.

Introduction: Clinical trials for CFTR modulators consider mean changes of clinical status at the cohort level, and thus fail to assess the heterogeneity of the response. We aimed to study the different response profiles to lumacaftor-ivacaftor according to age in children with cystic fibrosis (CF).

Methods: A mathematical framework, including principal component analysis, data clustering, and data completion, was applied to a multicenter cohort of 112 children aged 6-18 years, treated with lumacaftor-ivacaftor.

Development of the circadian system in early life: maternal and environmental factors.

In humans, an adaptable internal biological system generates circadian rhythms that maintain synchronicity of behavior and physiology with the changing demands of the 24-h environment. Development of the circadian system begins in utero and continues throughout the first few years of life. Maturation of the clock can be measured through sleep/wake patterns and hormone secretion.

Evidence of circalunar rhythmicity in young children's evening melatonin levels.

In adults, recent evidence demonstrates that sleep and circadian physiology change across lunar phases, including findings that endogenous melatonin levels are lower near the full moon compared to the new moon. Here, we extend these results to early childhood by examining circalunar fluctuations in children's evening melatonin levels. We analysed extant data on young children's circadian rhythms (n = 46, aged 3.

Child Maltreatment Severity and Sleep Variability Predict Mother-Infant RSA Coregulation.

Regulatory processes underlie maternal-infant interactions and may be disrupted in adverse caregiving environments. Child maltreatment and sleep variability may reflect high-risk caregiving, but it is unknown whether they confer vulnerability for poorer mother-infant parasympathetic coordination. The aim of this study was to examine mother-infant coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in relation to child maltreatment severity and night-to-night sleep variability in 47 low-income mother-infant dyads.

High sensitivity of melatonin suppression response to evening light in preschool-aged children.

Light at night in adults suppresses melatonin in a nonlinear intensity-dependent manner. In children, bright light of a single intensity before bedtime has a robust melatonin suppressing effect. To our knowledge, whether evening light of different intensities is related to melatonin suppression in young children is unknown.

Respiratory morbidity in children with congenital heart disease.

Objective: To evaluate the respiratory outcome in children with congenital heart disease (CHD), considering recent management procedures and the CHD pathophysiology.

Design And Setting: Clinical and functional respiratory outcome were evaluated in 8-year-old children with isolated CHD followed up from birth in the prospective population-based EPICARD cohort.

Patients: Children were assigned to two groups, based on the pathophysiology of the CHD: CHDs with left-to-right shunt (n = 212) and CHDs with right outflow tract obstruction (n = 113).

Alveolar proteinosis of genetic origins.

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare form of chronic interstitial lung disease, characterised by the intra-alveolar accumulation of lipoproteinaceous material. Numerous conditions can lead to its development. Whereas the autoimmune type is the main cause in adults, genetic defects account for a large part of cases in infants and children.