Snoring linked to learning hurdles in kids, study finds

Snoring — and the health issues it creates — is a problem long presumed to be reserved for adults. But new research reveals that snoring children are suffering during waking hours too.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, observed for the first time that children who snore three or more times a week presented thinner gray matter in the brain compared to kids getting normal sleep. Poor sleep has been shown to reduce gray matter, the areas of the brain most densely packed with neurons, which play a critical role in day-to-day activities, particularly in terms of impulse control and reasoning skills. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine perused MRI images of more than 10,000 children 9 to 10 years old who are enrolled in the National Institutes of Health’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, or ABCD Study, a long-term project to track children’s brain health in the US.