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Evelyne Touchette

Bio: Evelyne Touchette is an academic researcher from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. The author has contributed to research in topics: Longitudinal study & Bedtime. The author has an hindex of 23, co-authored 38 publications receiving 2490 citations. Previous affiliations of Evelyne Touchette include Laval University & Université de Montréal.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
01 Sep 2007-Sleep
TL;DR: Shortened sleep duration, especially before the age of 41 months, is associated with externalizing problems such as HI and lower cognitive performance on neurodevelopmental tests, highlighting the importance of giving a child the opportunity to sleep at least 10 hours per night throughout early childhood.
Abstract: Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the associations between longitudinal sleep duration patterns and behavioral/cognitive functioning at school entry. Design, Setting, and Participants: Hyperactivity-impulsivity (HI), inattention, and daytime sleepiness scores were measured by questionnaire at 6 years of age in a sample of births from 1997 to 1998 in a Canadian province (N=1492). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised (PPVT-R) was administered at 5 years of age and the Block Design subtest (WISCIII) was administered at 6 years of age. Sleep duration was reported yearly by the children’s mothers from age 2.5 to 6 years. A group-based semiparametric mixture model was used to estimate developmental patterns of sleep duration. The relationships between sleep duration patterns and both behavioral items and neurodevelopmental tasks were tested using weighted multivariate logistic regression models to control for potentially confounding psychosocial factors. Results: Four sleep duration patterns were identified: short persistent (6.0%), short increasing (4.8%),10-hour persistent (50.3%), and 11-hour persistent (38.9%). The association of short sleep duration patterns with high HI scores (P=0.001), low PPVT-R performance (P=0.002), and low Block Design subtest performance (P=0.004) remained significant after adjusting for potentially confounding variables. Conclusions: Shortened sleep duration, especially before the age of 41 months, is associated with externalizing problems such as HI and lower cognitive performance on neurodevelopmental tests. Results highlight the importance of giving a child the opportunity to sleep at least 10 hours per night throughout early childhood.

451 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is a high prevalence of night wakings and sleep-onset difficulties in preschool children and Parasomnias are highly prevalent in early childhood and are associated with separation anxiety, however, they have little impact on sleep duration.
Abstract: OBJECTIVES. Our aim for this study was to determine the prevalence of dyssomnias and various parasomnias in early childhood and to describe their temporal evolution, gender differences, and correlates. METHODS. This research is part of a longitudinal study of child development. A randomized, 3-level, stratified survey design was used to study a representative sample of infants who were born in 1997–1998 in the province of Quebec (Canada). When the children were 2.5 years of age, 1997 families agreed to be interviewed. The presence of dyssomnias or parasomnias was obtained from a self-administered questionnaire that was completed by the mother at each round of measures. RESULTS. The percentage of children with frequent night wakings decreased steadily from 36.3% at age 2.5 to 13.2% at age 6. Similarly, the percentage of children who had difficulty falling asleep at night decreased significantly from 16.0% at ages 3.5 and 4 to 10% at age 5 and to 7.4% at age 6. The overall prevalence of each parasomnia for the period studied was as follows: somnambulism, 14.5%; sleep terrors, 39.8%; somniloquy, 84.4%; enuresis, 25.0%; bruxism, 45.6%; and rhythmic movements, 9.2%. Persistent somnambulism at age 6 was significantly correlated with sleep terrors and somniloquy. Persistent sleep terrors at age 6 were also correlated with somniloquy. Finally, persistent sleep terrors at age 6 were correlated with frequent night wakings. Separation anxiety was associated with persistent night wakings and with somnambulism, bruxism, sleep terrors, and somniloquy. CONCLUSIONS. There is a high prevalence of night wakings and sleep-onset difficulties in preschool children. Parasomnias are highly prevalent in early childhood and are associated with separation anxiety. However, they have little impact on sleep duration.

282 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Parental behaviors at bedtime and in response to a nocturnal awakening are highly associated with the child's sleep consolidation, and these effects are probably bidirectional and probably create a long-term problem.
Abstract: Objective To identify the factors most strongly associated with sleeping less than 6 consecutive hours at night for children aged 5, 17, and 29 months. Design, Setting, and Participants A randomized survey design used a representative sample of infants born in 1997-1998 in the Canadian province of Quebec. Data were collected by questionnaires and interviews. Interviews were scheduled at home with the mothers. The number of consecutive hours slept at night by 1741 children aged 5, 17, and 29 months was assessed from parental reports. Factors associated with fragmented sleep were investigated for each age in a cross-sectional design. Results At 5 months of age, 23.5% of children did not sleep 6 consecutive hours. Of the children who did not sleep 6 consecutive hours at night at 5 months or 17 months of age, 32.9% were still not sleeping 6 consecutive hours at night at 29 months of age. The factor most strongly associated with not sleeping at least 6 consecutive hours per night at 5 months of age was feeding the child after an awakening. Parental presence until sleep onset was the factor most strongly associated with not sleeping at least 6 consecutive hours per night at 17 months and 29 months of age. Conclusions Sleep consolidation evolves rapidly in early childhood. Parental behaviors at bedtime and in response to a nocturnal awakening are highly associated with the child’s sleep consolidation. The effects are probably bidirectional and probably create a long-term problem. Early interventions could possibly break the cycle.

189 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Nov 2008-Sleep
TL;DR: Persistently short sleep duration (<10 h) during early childhood significantly increases the risk of excess weight or obesity in childhood, and appears to be independent of other obesogenic factors.
Abstract: CHILDHOOD OBESITY IS A PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM THAT IS SWEEPING THE WORLD, ESPECIALLY INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES.1 A RECENT STUDY SHOWED THAT 10% to 15% of 2- to 5-year-olds are overweight in the United States.2 Furthermore, approximately 60% to 85% of obese children remain obese in adulthood.3 The major risk health problems of childhood obesity are cardiovascular disease (dyslipidemia, hypertension), endocrine dysfunction (type 2 diabetes, glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance) and pulmonary complications (obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, asthma, and exercise intolerance).1 Causes of the obesity are known to be multifactorial. A pediatric twin study suggests that 80% of the variation in body fat percentage and body mass index (BMI) is attributable to genetic factors.4 However, the rapid rise in obesity prevalence among genetically stable populations suggests that environmental factors should also be taken into account. It is recognized that prenatal factors, such as maternal diabetes, smoking during pregnancy, obesity or weight gain during pregnancy, birth weight of the child (as an outcome of intrauterine environment), might affect BMI in early childhood because the behaviors affecting energy balance develop early in life.5,6 In addition, sedentary lifestyles such as excessive television viewing or lack of physical activity contribute to the development of childhood obesity.7 There is growing evidence that sleep duration could be an additional factor. A comparison of 3 birth cohorts (1974,1979, and 1986) from 1 month to 16 years of age from the same Swiss population revealed that time spent in bed decreased (∼40 min) across cohorts particularly among young children.8 Also, an important 3.3-fold increase was observed in the prevalence of childhood (6–11 y) obesity between 1971–1974 and 1999.1 Previous cross-sectional studies have reported a link between short sleep duration and obesity in school-aged children.9–12 Chaput and coworkers (2006)12 found that the percentage of overweight and obese 5- to 10-year-old children was 3.5 times higher in children who slept 8 to 10 h (maternal report) than in children who slept for a total of 12 or 13 h, after adjusting for obesity risk factors such as parental obesity. Moreover, short nighttime sleep duration (<10.5 h) in children aged 30 months was one of 8 risk factors associated with increased obesity prevalence at the age of 7 y.11 However, these studies did not investigate sleep duration in a longitudinal manner. The aim of our work was to investigate whether sleep duration is a risk factor of overweight or obesity in early childhood. This study has some notable strengths. First, and most importantly, sleep duration was determined by establishing longitudinal sleep duration patterns across early childhood rather than reporting sleep duration at a single point in time (which might not be representative of the entire childhood). Second, the large study sample permitted the simultaneous examination of a variety of potentially confounding factors.

165 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Children continuing on an elevated BMI trajectory leading to obesity in middle childhood can be distinguished from children on a normative BMI trajectory as early as age 3.5 years.
Abstract: Objectives To identify groups of children with distinct developmental trajectories of body mass index (BMI), calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, between the ages of 5 months and 8 years and identify early-life risk factors that distinguish children in an atypically elevated BMI trajectory group. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Families with a child born between October 1997 and July 1998 in the province of Quebec, Canada. Participants A representative sample of children (N = 2120) selected through birth registries for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Children for whom BMI data were available for at least 5 time points were retained in the present study (n = 1957). Main Exposures Early-life factors putatively associated with BMI, assessed by maternal report. Outcome Measure Group-based trajectories of children's BMI, identified with a semiparametric modeling method from raw BMI values at each age. Results Three trajectories of BMI were identified: low-stable (54.5% of children), moderate (41.0%), and high-rising (4.5%). The high-rising group was characterized by an increasing average BMI, which exceeded international cutoff values for obesity by age 8 years. Two maternal risk factors were associated with the high-rising group as compared with the low-stable and moderate groups combined: maternal BMI (odds ratio, 2.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.38-4.54 for maternal overweight and 6.33; 3.82-11.85 for maternal obesity) and maternal smoking during pregnancy (2.28; 1.49-4.04). Conclusions Children continuing on an elevated BMI trajectory leading to obesity in middle childhood can be distinguished from children on a normative BMI trajectory as early as age 3.5 years. Important and preventable risk factors for childhood obesity are in place before birth.

145 citations


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TL;DR: This review aims to comprehensively cover the field of "sleep and memory" research by providing a historical perspective on concepts and a discussion of more recent key findings.
Abstract: Over more than a century of research has established the fact that sleep benefits the retention of memory. In this review we aim to comprehensively cover the field of "sleep and memory" research by providing a historical perspective on concepts and a discussion of more recent key findings. Whereas initial theories posed a passive role for sleep enhancing memories by protecting them from interfering stimuli, current theories highlight an active role for sleep in which memories undergo a process of system consolidation during sleep. Whereas older research concentrated on the role of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, recent work has revealed the importance of slow-wave sleep (SWS) for memory consolidation and also enlightened some of the underlying electrophysiological, neurochemical, and genetic mechanisms, as well as developmental aspects in these processes. Specifically, newer findings characterize sleep as a brain state optimizing memory consolidation, in opposition to the waking brain being optimized for encoding of memories. Consolidation originates from reactivation of recently encoded neuronal memory representations, which occur during SWS and transform respective representations for integration into long-term memory. Ensuing REM sleep may stabilize transformed memories. While elaborated with respect to hippocampus-dependent memories, the concept of an active redistribution of memory representations from networks serving as temporary store into long-term stores might hold also for non-hippocampus-dependent memory, and even for nonneuronal, i.e., immunological memories, giving rise to the idea that the offline consolidation of memory during sleep represents a principle of long-term memory formation established in quite different physiological systems.

1,964 citations

01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: This work reviews the literature regarding short sleep duration as an independent risk factor for obesity and weight gain and suggests sleep deprivation may influence weight through effects on appetite, physical activity, and/or thermoregulation.
Abstract: Objective: The recent obesity epidemic has been accompanied by a parallel growth in chronic sleep deprivation. Physiologic studies suggest sleep deprivation may influence weight through effects on appetite, physical activity, and/or thermoregulation. This work reviews the literature regarding short sleep duration as an independent risk factor for obesity and weight gain.

1,172 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a European guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia was developed by a task force of the European Sleep Research Society, with the aim of providing clinical recommendations for the management of adult patients with insomnia.
Abstract: This European guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia was developed by a task force of the European Sleep Research Society, with the aim of providing clinical recommendations for the management of adult patients with insomnia. The guideline is based on a systematic review of relevant meta-analyses published till June 2016. The target audience for this guideline includes all clinicians involved in the management of insomnia, and the target patient population includes adults with chronic insomnia disorder. The GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) system was used to grade the evidence and guide recommendations. The diagnostic procedure for insomnia, and its co-morbidities, should include a clinical interview consisting of a sleep history (sleep habits, sleep environment, work schedules, circadian factors), the use of sleep questionnaires and sleep diaries, questions about somatic and mental health, a physical examination and additional measures if indicated (i.e. blood tests, electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram; strong recommendation, moderate- to high-quality evidence). Polysomnography can be used to evaluate other sleep disorders if suspected (i.e. periodic limb movement disorder, sleep-related breathing disorders), in treatment-resistant insomnia, for professional at-risk populations and when substantial sleep state misperception is suspected (strong recommendation, high-quality evidence). Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is recommended as the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia in adults of any age (strong recommendation, high-quality evidence). A pharmacological intervention can be offered if cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is not sufficiently effective or not available. Benzodiazepines, benzodiazepine receptor agonists and some antidepressants are effective in the short-term treatment of insomnia (≤4 weeks; weak recommendation, moderate-quality evidence). Antihistamines, antipsychotics, melatonin and phytotherapeutics are not recommended for insomnia treatment (strong to weak recommendations, low- to very-low-quality evidence). Light therapy and exercise need to be further evaluated to judge their usefulness in the treatment of insomnia (weak recommendation, low-quality evidence). Complementary and alternative treatments (e.g. homeopathy, acupuncture) are not recommended for insomnia treatment (weak recommendation, very-low-quality evidence).

1,076 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the secret to improve the quality of life by reading this group-based modeling of development is found, which is a kind of book that you need now, and it can be your favorite book to read after having this book.
Abstract: Find the secret to improve the quality of life by reading this group based modeling of development. This is a kind of book that you need now. Besides, it can be your favorite book to read after having this book. Do you ask why? Well, this is a book that has different characteristic with others. You may not need to know who the author is, how well-known the work is. As wise word, never judge the words from who speaks, but make the words as your good value to your life.

864 citations