Sleep and breastfeeding are beneficial for building memory.
SLEEP AND BREASTFEEDING ARE BENEFICIAL FOR BUILDING MEMORY
Researchers carried out a narrative review of 10 studies on infant sleep and cognition.
Infant sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation. Three studies in the review found that babies who napped after learning had better memory consolidation than children in the control group with no training on the object-action pairings after 4 and 24-hour delays. Daytime naps in 10-month-old babies also predicted immediate recall and generalisation. Babies who napped after the training tasks had better object-word pair learning in the test trial than those who did not.
Children who have more than two hours of screen time are more prone to developing inattention and behavioural problems. On the other hand, children who have more physical activities and quality sleep perform better in tests that measure language abilities, memory, executive function, attention span and processing speed.
Nutrition also plays a role in promoting memory. A study of neurocognitive development of Asian children showed that breastfeeding could enhance the memory and global measures of intelligence in children. The study examined associations between early infant feeding and detailed measures of cognitive development in the first two years of life in healthy Asian children born at term.
Neurocognitive testing was performed in 408 healthy children (ages 6, 18 and 24 months) from uncomplicated pregnancies. Tests included memory (deferred imitation, relational binding, habituation) and attention tasks (visual expectation, auditory oddball), as well as the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd Edition (BSID-III). Children were stratified into three groups (low, intermediate, and high) based on breastfeeding duration and exclusivity.
The study found that higher breastfeeding exposure was linked to better memory at six months old, as shown by correctly matched items during early portions of a relational memory task. No effects of breastfeeding were observed at 18 months old. At 24 months old, breastfed children were more likely to display sequential memory during a deferred imitation memory task.