title: Neonatal Sleep Predicts Attention Orienting and Distractibility.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Children with sleep disorders tend to experience attention problems, yet little is known about the relationship between sleep and attention in early development. This prospective follow-up study investigated the longitudinal relationships between neonatal sleep, attention, and distraction in infants born preterm.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used actigraphy and sleep-wake diaries in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU, N = 65), attention orienting in a visual-recognition-memory task (VRM) at age 4 months, and structured observation of attention and distractibility at age 18 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Infants with poorer neonatal sleep (n = 31) exhibited longer first gaze durations in the VRM at 4 months and longer distraction episodes at 18 months relative to neonatal controls who slept well (p < .01). Hierarchical regression models support relations between neonatal sleep and gaze behavior at 4 months and distractibility at 18 months; moreover, alterations in orienting attention at 4 months predicted the likelihood of being distracted during the second year of life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings underscore the importance of early sleep-wake and attention regulation in the development of distraction in infants born preterm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel Ronny.Geva@biu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Ronny
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Geva
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Hagit
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yaron
authors.affiliation: Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kuint
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000502:physiology*; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008297:Male; D047928:Premature Birth; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012890:Sleep; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders
keywords: attention; infant; prematurity; sleep