Research on the relationship between prenatal fetal sleep formation and sleep disorder in children

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K13072
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Childhood science (childhood environment science)
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Morokuma Seiichi 九州大学, 医学研究院, 教授 (50380639)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 胎児行動 / 睡眠

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Sleep during the developmental period is important for neural network formation and epidemiological research indicates that children's sleep disorders may lead to adult depression and schizophrenia. On the other hand, It has been reported that the origin of depression, schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders exist in the fetal period. Although neurodevelopment has already begun from the fetal stage, there have been no studies on the relationship between fetal sleep formation and sleep disorders in children. In this study, the primary purpose was to clarify changes in eye movement activity during the prenatal period, and two significant critical points were revealed. Currently, we are analyzing the association between fetal eye movement activity and children's sleep disorder.

Free Research Field

周産期医学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究により、胎児の睡眠は有意な変曲点をもって発達していることが明らかとなった。このことは、ヒトの睡眠形成を知る上で有用な知見となり、胎児の発達をみる指標の一つとなることが考えられる。今後、胎児期の睡眠形成に影響を及ぼす因子の検討にも有用である。また、現在解析中であるが、子どもの睡眠障害との関連が明らかになれば、子どもの睡眠障害の原因分析にも繋がる。以上のように、本研究は学術的、社会的意義が大きいと考えられる。