The possible long-term effects of early-life circadian rhythm disturbance on social behavior

Abstract

Sleep loss impairs brain function. As late sleep onset can reduce sleep, this sleep/circadian rhythm disturbance may cause brain impairment. Specific data on the long-term effects of sleep/circadian rhythm disturbance on subsequent brain function are lacking. Japan, a sleep-deprived society from infancy to adulthood, provides an ideal platform to investigate the association of these disturbances in early life with subsequent functioning. In this article, several current problematic behaviors among youth in Japan (dropping out from high school, school absenteeism, early resignation from employment, and suicide) are discussed in relation to early life sleep/circadian rhythm patterns. We hypothesize that daily habits of modern society during early stages of life produce unfavorable effects on brain function resulting in problematic behaviors in subsequent years.

Keywords::

• absenteeism
• dropout
• grooming
• melatonin
• oxytocin
• reading aloud
• serotonin
• sleep
• suicide
• juku

Financial & competing interests disclosure

J Kohyama has served as a speaker for Johnson & Johnson. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

• Poor daily habits (delayed bedtime, delayed waking, sleep loss) during early stages of life can affect the brain function of children, resulting in impairments of their behavior, cognitive function and mental development.

• Many poor daily habits may be produced by social pressure to neglect adequate sleep hygiene.

• It is important to protect children from social pressures that induce inadequate sleep hygiene.

• Poor daily habits formed during the early stages of life may persist through adulthood.

• The current generation of youth developed poor daily habits when they were young children.

• Poor daily habits of modern society developed during the early stages of life may produce unfavorable effects on brain function in subsequent years, resulting in the occurrence of problematic behaviors (dropping out from school, school absenteeism, early resignation from employment and suicide).

• Possible preventive approaches (sleep health [going to bed early and taking a sufficient duration of sleep], affectionate physical contact (holding, piggybacking) and reading books to children) are introduced.

• These techniques were used unconsciously by people in older generations.

• We are now learning the background brain mechanisms of these traditionally-favored approaches to bringing up children.

Notes

1 Interestingly, recently published International Classification of Sleep Disorders Version 3 (American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The International classification of sleep disorder (Third edition). Westchester: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, (2014).) quitted to discriminate subtypes of insomnia including inadequate sleep hygiene, because discrimination among subtypes of insomnia has proven difficult given their current definitions and available methods for their ascertainment.