Children’s Emotional Expressivity After Sleep Restriction Forecasts Social Problems Years Later

Sleep patterns affect children’s socioemotional functioning in ways that may predict long-term social problems. However, precise mechanisms through which these effects occur remain unexplored and thus unknown. Building on findings in adults, the current study examined whether changes in children’s facial expressions of emotion after sleep restriction predict social problems concurrently and/or longitudinally. At time 1, 37 children (mean = 9.08 years, SD = 1.3) completed in-lab emotional assessments both when rested and after two nights of sleep restriction. Participants’ parents provided reports of their child’s social problems at time 1 and approximately 2 years later (time 2; mean = 11.26 years, SD = 1.6). Children who exhibited less positive facial expressions in response to positive images after sleep restriction evidenced greater social problems longitudinally, even when controlling for earlier social problems. Results suggest that inadequate sleep may undermine children’s social functioning via alterations in emotional expression which may become more salient with age.