News & Updates

As children head back to school, they must adapt to new routines and social situations. From expanding knowledge about sleep to assessing strategies to prevent school violence, NICHD research helps contribute to a safe and healthy learning environment.

This collaboration will promote safe infant sleep with and within American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

Infants born to mothers with sleep-disordered breathing—snoring, apnea, and other breathing difficulties during sleep—are more likely to develop complications such as jaundice, low blood sugar, seizures, or death during the newborn period, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The authors called for studies to determine if treating mid-pregnancy, sleep-disordered breathing would improve infant outcomes.

The Safe to Sleep® campaign, a national effort to raise awareness about ways to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related infant deaths, will be updating the campaign’s messages to reflect revised recommendations for safe infant sleep issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The updates ensure that parents and caregivers have the latest information about evidence-based risk-reduction strategies.

It just got easier to participate in the PregSource®: Crowdsourcing to Understand Pregnancy research project. The free app allows participants to track their weight, sleep, mood, and other features of their pregnancy in just a few taps.

A three-part Science of Sleep Series, co-sponsored by NICHD; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; and the National Institute on Aging, will feature researchers discussing how children and adults can put the latest sleep science into practice to support optimal health outcomes throughout the lifespan.

Preliminary data from NICHD-funded researchers provides caregiver-reported information on how children and teens fared during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Institutes of Health and the District of Columbia government are teaming up to raise awareness among District parents and caregivers about how to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome and other sleep-related causes of infant death, such as accidental suffocation.

Read about NICHD’s research findings and activities from 2020.

The pandemic reinforces why the NIH INCLUDE (INvestigation of Co-occurring conditions across the Lifespan to Understand Down syndromE) Project matters to families and communities.

NIH has launched a new initiative that will combat the growing problem of maternal mortality and morbidity in the United States.

Screen time before bed may affect kids differently, depending on whether they have a particular personality trait, suggests a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Nighttime electronic media use was linked to less sleep in children who scored lower on a measure of effortful control—the ability to override inappropriate impulses, focus attention, and complete difficult tasks. In contrast, bedtime screen use was not associated with sleep reduction in children who scored high in effortful control.

A small study funded by the National Institutes of Health suggests that sleep problems among children who have a sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may further raise the likelihood of an ASD diagnosis, compared to at-risk children who do not have difficulty sleeping.

High school students who began classes roughly an hour later than students at neighboring schools slept an average of 43 minutes more per night, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study authors wrote that the later morning start times accommodated the teens’ natural sleep period, which begins about two hours later than that of younger children.

Drug labels for doxycycline, clindamycin and caffeine citrate now include better information for healthcare providers on recommended usage and dosage in pediatric populations.

NICHD has launched a partnership with Safe Kids Worldwide, a global non-profit working to protect kids from preventable injuries through a network of more than 400 coalitions.

A study from federal researchers shows that information about ways to reduce the risk of sleep-related infant deaths is not reaching all caregivers or healthcare providers.

As part of NICHD’s continued partnership with the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity®, Inc., the NICHD-led Safe to Sleep® campaign recently launched a mini-grant program to support fraternity members in conducting safe infant sleep outreach. The mini-grants will enable Kappa members to lead and host activities in their communities, where they can share safe infant sleep messages in culturally sensitive ways.

Snoring, older age and obesity may increase a pregnant woman’s risk for sleep apnea—or interrupted breathing during sleep—according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

A molecule may work with the hormone melatonin to regulate 24-hour changes in metabolism, including sleep and wake cycles, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.