Summary: Adolescents who snore regularly are more likely to display behavioral issues such as forgetfulness, rule-breaking, and anger, but their mental abilities, including storage and language skills, remain intact, a new study reveals. The largest U.S. mental development project, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development research, was conducted by researchers who analyzed data from nearly 12, 000 children. They discovered that as children grew older, even without any treatment, snoring rates normally decreased, but consistent snorers developed behavioral issues that might be mistaken for ADHD.
Important Information:
- Teenagers who snore usually experience behavioral problems but retain basic cognitive abilities.
- Snoring prices decline with age, yet without medical treatment.
- Some babies with sleep-related breathing issues are misdiagnosed as ADHD and require unnecessary stimulant therapy.
Origin: University of Maryland
According to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine ( UMSOM), adolescents who snore more frequently were more likely to experience behavioral issues like inattention, rule-breaking, and aggression.
This is the largest study to date that has tracked snoring in kids from primary school through middle school, and it offers a valuable release for parents who are unsure of how to control breathing.
The results were just published in , JAMA Network Open.
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed the parent-reported snoring data, cognitive, and behavioral test outcomes of nearly 12, 000 children enrolled in the national , Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development ( ABCD ) study,  , the largest study of brain development and child health in the U. S. Children were enrolled in the study at ages 9-10 and had annual visits through age 15 to assess their snoring frequency, cognitive abilities, and behavioral issues.
Teenagers who snore three days or more per year were more likely to experience behavioural issues like inattention in school, social difficulties with friendships, or ability to express their feelings effectively.
However, these teenagers who snorted did not notice any variations in their checking or language skills or in their memory or cognitive processing scores in comparison to their non-snoring peers.
Additionally, the researchers discovered that children’s snoring rates decreased as they grew older, yet without medical care.  ,
” Adolescence is a time when the body’s endurance withstands adverse sources, which could explain why we are seeing the survival of consciousness in mild of habitual snoring”, said , Amal Isaiah, MD, PhD, MBA,  , research co-author, Chief of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology at UMSOM and instructors at the Institute for Health Computing.
It might be time to consult with a child’s pediatrician about a sleep study, possibly even before an ADHD assessment. In order to improve our treatment strategies, we hope that these findings will help us more identify the behavior from mental effects of snoring.
Up to 15 % of American children have some form of sleep-related breathing, and a sizable portion of them are misdiagnosed as having ADHD and required to be treated with stimulant medications.
Dr. Isaiah’s findings expand upon his , previous research , linking frequent snoring to concerning brain changes and behavioral problems in children, with long-term follow-up of these children into their teen years.
Children’s frequent snoring is frequently linked to poor health outcomes, including poor academic performance, problematic behavior, and a lower quality of life.
The lack of data from the population makes it difficult to weigh the appropriate management options, such as surgery to remove the adenoids and tonsils (adenotonsillectomy ), as well as other non-surgical options, despite clinical associations ‘ recommendations for proactive treatment of sleep disordered breathing.
” Dr. Isaiah utilized sophisticated data analytics to examine over one million data points, assessing the impact of sleep-disordered breathing on the developing brains of children through adolescence”, said , Mark T. Gladwin, MD,  , who is the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of UMSOM, and Vice President for Medical Affairs at University of Maryland, Baltimore.  ,
” Computers that used to take months can now be completed in a matter of days thanks to the UM Institute for Health Computing’s novel computational and AI tools.”
The UM Institute for Health Computing’s AI capabilities will be expanded to process larger datasets and investigate the link between snoring and brain outcomes.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health ( NIH) and various funders of the ABCD study provided funding for the study.
About this sleep, neurodevelopment, and behavioral neuroscience research news
Author: Holly Moody-Porter
Source: University of Maryland
Contact: Holly Moody-Porter – University of Maryland
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
” Snoring among adolescents: Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes” by , Amal Isaiah et al. JAMA Network Open
Abstract
Snoring among adolescents: Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes
Importance
Snoring is central to sleep-disordered breathing ( SDB), which arises from nocturnal upper airway resistance. Little is known about the cognitive and behavioral effects of snoring in young children, but these connections are less well known for adolescents.
Objective
To examine the longitudinal associations between adolescent cognition and problem behavior and snoring.
Design, Setting, and Participants ,  ,
This cohort study was a secondary analysis of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development ( ABCD ) Study dataset ( release 5.0), which enrolled 11 875 children and a parent or caregiver from June 1, 2016, to October 15, 2018, at 21 participating US research institutions and followed-up for 5 years. Between December 2023 and April 2024, the analysis was carried out.
Exposures
Parent-reported snoring categorized as none, nonhabitual ( <, 3 nights/week ), and habitual ( ≥3 times/week ).
Main Outcomes and Measures ,  ,
Cognition was assessed using 5 measures from the National Institutes of Health Toolbox ( NIH-TB), and caregiver-reported problem behaviors were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist ( CBCL), including Total Problems, Internalizing Problems, and Externalizing Problems. Using linear mixed-effects models with obesity, longitudinal associations of snoring and these assessment measures were analyzed.
Model fits were assessed after including the fixed-effects of age, sex at birth, race, family income, follow-up time, visit type, and the random-effects of site and identification number.
Results
The study included data from 11 862 children at year 1 ( mean age, 119.0 months ]95 % CI, 118.8 to 119.1 months ], 6164 male]52.2 % ] ) and 11 198, 10 870, 10 064, and 4668 children at years 2 to 5, respectively. The proportion of habitual snorers decreased from 811 participants ( 6.8 % ) in year 1 to 150 participants ( 3.2 % ) in year 5. None of the NIH-TB scores were related to snoring.
All CBCL scales revealed a statistically significant correlation with snoring. The largest-magnitude association was of snoring with the CBCL Total Problems scale among adolescents with obesity ( β = 3.18, 95 % CI, 2.59-3.77 ).
Conclusions and Relevance ,  ,
The prevalence of snoring decreased over time, but in this cohort study, snoring in adolescents was linked to problem behaviors but not cognitive deficits, according to an analysis of the ABCD dataset.
These findings may help people make informed decisions regarding SDB-related treatment options like an adenosillectomy.
