Dynamics of Sleep-Wake Regulation in Early Childhood by Christina Athanasouli

Dynamics of Sleep-Wake Regulation in Early Childhood by Christina Athanasouli, Williams College, Friday November 15, 1:00 – 1:50pm, North Science Building 015, Wachenheim, Faculty Seminar

Abstract: Sleep-wake patterns exhibit great variability across early childhood development. The transition from a biphasic pattern, consisting of a midday nap and a nighttime sleep, to a monophasic pattern of consolidated behavior is an important milestone for young children. In the first part of the talk, I will introduce the mathematical models of the sleep-wake regulatory network I use to study the changes in sleep patterns across development. These models also include feedback from the circadian system and the homeostatic sleep drive. I will also discuss some of the mathematical tools and theory of dynamical systems that are helpful for model analysis. Time permitting, I will present some more recent results. By integrating observational and experimental data from preschool-aged participants, we identify parameter sets that accurately reflect the sleep behaviors of 2-year-olds (napping) and 5-year-olds (non-napping). We vary a subset of six model parameters associated with the dynamics and sensitivity to the homeostatic sleep drive based on different evolution trajectories, and thus, generate diverse bifurcation sequences that represent varying ages of transition onset, transition durations, and transitional sleep patterns.