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. 2022 Oct-Dec;15(4):490–514. doi: 10.5935/1984-0063.20220082

Table 3.

Summary of studies included to the review.

Author Subjects
N (Mage in years)
Design Task Stimuli Measures Sleep Measures Result
1 Bastien et al. (2019)85 82 (2.1) Longitudinal - - Toddler behavior assessment questionnaire. Actigraphy. Shorter nighttime sleep duration and lower sleep efficiency at the age of 2 years predicted more anger at 3 years. Higher rates of social fear at 2 years predicted shorter day- and nighttime sleep duration at 3 years.
2 Baum et al. (2014)69 50 (15.5) Between-subjects.
SR: 6.5hrs of sleep
SE: 10hrs of sleep for 4 nights.
- - Vanderbilt assessment scale, Emotion control subscale of the behavior rating inventory of executive functioning, POMS. Sleep diary, actigraphy. SR predicted increased levels of tension and anxiety, oppositionality, and less emotion regulation.
Mood dimensions deteriorate, except depressive mood.
3 Bayes and Bullock (2020)79 114 (8.4) Cross-sectional - - Conner’s behavior rating scale. Sleep disorders inventory for students-children and adolescents. Sleep problems seem to be moderately associated to emotional distress, aggressive behavior, and impulsivity/hyperactivity
4 Berger et al. (2012)62 10 (2.8) Within-subjects. Afternoon nap deprivation. Affective response task.
Unsolvable puzzle task.
11 emotional images (5 positive, 3 neutral, 3 negative).
Incorrect piece in the puzzle.
Behavioral rating. Sleep diary, CSHQ, actigraphy. ND predicted significant more negative/less positive affect to emotional images, and duration of emotional responses during the puzzle is affected by ND.
5 Bolinger et al. (2018)49 16 (9,3) Within-subjects. Encoding and
recognition task.
444 emotional images of the IAPS. PANAS, LPP, HRD. Stanford sleepiness scale, PSG. After nocturnal sleep, emotional responses that are automatic as HRD increase, and cognitive emotional responses as subjective behavioral ratings and neurological activity LPP decreased.
6 Cho et al. (2017)60 123 (2.0) Longitudinal A 5 min version of laboratory temperament assessment battery. Snack delay task. 6 laboratory episodes
Puppet show
Clown interaction
Stranger approach
Stranger working
Spider
Robot
Behavioral ratings, ITSEA, and ECG. Sleep diary. Longer sleep duration predicted fewer internalizing symptoms in children showing a higher RSA.
7 Cremone et al. (2017)52 43 (4.6) Between-subjects Dot-probe task. 32 happy/neutral and angry/neutral face pairs on a screen.
Trial: fixation (500ms), stimuli presentation (1000ms), probe (1100ms).
Accuracy and reaction times. PSG measures. No emotional attention bias following N.
ND exhibit bias to negative and positive stimuli.
Greater SWA during N predicted faster responding to emotional stimuli.
Author Subjects
N (Mage in years)
Design Task Stimuli Measures Measures-Sleep Result
8 Dagys et al. (2012)68 47 (13.1) Within-subjects.
SR: 2hrs of sleep
SE: 8.5hrs of sleep for 2 nights.
- - PANAS-C, children’s morningness-eveningness preferences scale. Duke structured interview for sleep disorder, sleep diary, actigraphy. SE predicted more positive affect, positivity.
No difference concerning negative affect between SE and SR.
Evening as well as morning chronotypes displayed less positive affect after SR.
9 DeLeon and Karraker (2007)65 41 (0.7) Cross-sectional - - Revised infant temperament questionnaire, Infant/Toddler symptom checklist. Infant care diary. Rhythmic and adaptable infants took longer naps and slept more at night.
Distractible children took shorter and more frequent naps.
11 Foley and Weinraub (2017)82 1057 Longitudinal. Assessment took place at the age of 54 months in grade 1, 3, and 5. - - Generated questionnaire for feelings, risky behavior and emotional regulation.
Child behavior checklist.
Children’s depression inventory.
CBCL. Early sleep problems predicted anxious-depressed symptoms in the middle childhood, a higher rate of emotional reactivity in the preadolescence.
Gender differences in temporal development of sleep and emotion problems exist.
12 Gregory and O’Connor (2002)81 490
Assessments from 3 to 15 years of age.
Longitudinal - - CBCL. CBCL. Early sleep problems at 4y predicted depression/anxiety, attention problems, and aggression in adolescent age
No evidence of early depression/anxiety symptoms predicting later sleep problems.
13 Gruber et al. (2012)77 33 (8.6) Within-subjects.
SR/SE: 1hr later/earlier to bed for 5 nights.
- - Connors’ global index-teacher. SE predicted significant lower emotional lability and restless-impulsivity.
14 Gruber et al. (2020)80 122 (8.6) Cross-sectional - - CBCL. CSHQ, actigraphy. Children scored above the cut-off of the CSHQ had more emotional problems.
Data is in consent with the subjective sleep data.
Author Subjects
N (Mage in years)
Design Task Stimuli Measures Measures-Sleep Result
15 Han (2014)66 14 (4.8) Within-subjects. Afternoon nap deprivation. Affective response task. 34 emotional images with appropriate auditory stimuli (8 strong negative and positive, 8 weak positive and negative).
Trial: 11s, fixation (2s), cue to attention (2s), stimuli presentation (7s).
fEMG. Sleep diary, actigraphy. ND predicted greater emotional responses to strong negative and positive stimuli. No change in affective responses to weak stimuli. Emotional responses to emotional pictures were lower after the N.
16 Kouros and El-Sheik (2015)72 142 (10.7) Cross-sectional - - Daily mood report, Personality inventory for children. Actigraphy. Sleep latency, efficiency, mood and behavioral problems were found to be interconnected significantly.
17 Lo et al. (2016)55 56 (16.6) Between-subjects.
SR: 5hrs of sleep
SE: 9hrs of sleep for 7 nights.
- - PANAS. Karolinska sleepiness scale, Pittsburgh sleep quality index, actigraphy, PSG. SR predicted a decrease of positive affect with a lowest point at the last day of sleep restriction.
No significant change of negative mood through sleep restriction.
18 McMakin et al. (2016)67 48 (13.3)
16 (14.5)
Within subjects.
SR to 4hrs of sleep for 2 nights
SR to 6hrs of sleep on 1 night, and 2hrs of sleep on the second night.
SE: 10hrs of nocturnal sleep.
Peer conflict task.
Auditory valence identification task.
Affective response task.
Individual real-life disagreements. 42 emotion eliciting sound clips (14 positives, negative, neutral).
Trial: 15s, orientation (1s), stimuli presentation (6s), rating interval (8s).
Behavioral rating, accuracy, reaction times, pupillography and by subjective self-report. PSG SR predicted more self-reported and objective measured negative affect.
SR predicted less positive affect in study 1, not in study 2.
Negative affective behavior was significant higher after sleep restriction.
19 Miller et al. (2015)61 12 (2.8) Within-subjects.
Afternoon nap deprivation.
Unsolvable puzzle. Incorrect piece in the puzzle. Rating observation. Sleep diary, CSHQ, actigraphy. ND predicted less skepticism, and negative self-appraisal.
ND predicted more physical self-soothing, perseveration, and tenancy.
20 Raynolds (2017)73 20 (15.7) Within-subjects.
SE: 1hr earlier to bed for 5 nights.
Online social interaction task.
Paced auditory serial addition task.
Getting to know an unknown person.
Fast calculating.
Daily mood questionnaire.
The self-assessment Manikin.
Computer based linguistic inquiry and word count, facial expressions valence.
Sleep diary, actigraphy. SE predicted more negative facial expression and higher levels of facial expression variability.
No change in emotional language, subjective report of emotion regulation, persistence or task performance.
Author Subjects
N (Mage in years)
Design Task Stimuli Measures Measures-Sleep Result
21 Reddy et al. (2017)57 42 (14.8) Between-subjects.
SR: 2hrs later to bed.
SE: 9.5hrs in bed.
Emotion reactivity and regulation task. 40 emotional images (8 positive and neutral, 24 negative).
Trial: 18s, 10s stimulus presentation, 8s rating interval.
PANAS, State-trait anxiety inventory for children. Emotional reactivity and ER was assessed by subjective valence, intensity/arousal, and reappraisal ratings. Epworth’s sleepiness scale, BEARS sleep screen, sleep diary, actigraphy. SR predicts subjective decrease of positive affect and increase of state and trait anxiety.
No change in emotional reactivity and regulation.
22 Ross and Karraker (1999)63 40 (1.3) Between subjects.
20 subjects were assessed before
The other 20 subjects were assessed after their regular nap.
Rieser-Danner’s plexiglas barrier task.
Parts of the Laboratory temperament assessment battery.
Ainsworth’s strange situation procedure.
5 Stressing episodes,
Toys in jar,
Remote-controlled toy approach,
Maternal separation,
Attractive toy,
Mother busy.
Behavioral rating.
Infant behavior questionnaire.
- Fatigue sensitizes infants to certain stressors instead of simply increasing irritability and interferes with infants’ coping responses.
Exhausted children exhibited a higher degree of fatigue frustration.
23 Rubens et al. (2017)78 285 Assessments from 3rd to 5th grade Longitudinal - - Children’s emotion management scales,
Pediatric anxiety scale of the patient-reported outcomes measurement Information system,
Short mood and feelings questionnaire, Affective reactivity index,
Self-report scale for deviant behavior,
Self-reported reactive/proactive social behavior.
Sleep quality was assessed by subjective 4-item child self-report scale. Better sleep quality predicted lower self-reported emotional and behavioral problems.
Regarding gender effects girls scored higher on the anxiety scale and lower on irritability, delinquency engagement and reactive aggression.
24 Saenz et al. (2015)84 47 (1.6) Longitudinal - - BITSEA. Sleep diary, actigraphy. In girls, shorter sleep duration at the age of 3 months predicted significant more externalizing problems at the age of 18 months.
25 Schumacher et al. (2017)53 19 (3.8) Between-subjects.
SR: 3hrs later to bed for 1 night.
A go/no-go task.
Unsolvable puzzle.
No-go trial (pig).
Incorrect piece in the puzzle.
Accuracy, rating observers. Sleep diary, actigraphy. No significant effects of sleep restriction on response inhibition or self-regulation.
Interaction effect of response inhibition and sleep condition on adaptive self-regulation and maladaptive self-regulation.
Author Subjects
N (Mage in years)
Design Task Stimuli Measures Measures-Sleep Result
26 Settineri et al. (2010)71 529 (17.1) Cross-sectional - - Mood was assessed by subjective measurement with an 8-item scale. TST, napping and sleepiness was assessed by subjective measurement with a 4-item scale. Well-being at awakening had a negative correlation with sadness, apathy, anhedonia, and pessimistic thoughts.
Well-being at awakening was positively correlated with TST, negatively with afternoon naps and daytime drowsiness.
27 Short and Louca (2015)70 12 (16.2) within-subjects.
SR: 36hrs of wakefulness
- - POMS - short form. Sleep diary, Karolinska sleepiness scale, actigraphy, PSG. Dimensions of mood significantly deteriorate during a night of sleep restriction.
Increased anxiety in females but not in male participants after sleep restriction.
Only girls reported an increase of depressive mood in response to SR.
28 Soffer-Dudek et al. (2011)56 94 (10.5 at the 1st assessment) Longitudinal Balloons task. Faces on balloons showing different emotional expressions. Accuracy on judgments. Sleep diary, actigraphy. More night awakenings predicted less task performance on the face-emotion processing task.
29 Troxel et al. (2013)76 776
Assessments at 1, 6, 24, and 36, and 54 months.
Longitudinal - Neutral parent-child interaction at home was videotaped for 15 minutes during the visit. Negative emotionality was behavioral rated by researcher. CBCL-parent and teacher version. Early sleep problems and negative emotionality predicted later internalizing behavior.
30 Vaughn et al. (2015)58 62 (4.1) Cross-sectional Denham’s emotion knowledge task. Faces showing different emotional expressions. Emotional knowledge was rated on the documented subjects’ ratings during the task. Sleep diary, actigraphy. Sleep duration had positive correlations with emotional knowledge.
31 Vriend et al. (2013)54 32 (9.8) Within-subjects.
1hr SE/SR for 4 nights.
Affective response task. 33 emotional images Subjective affect rating on visual analogue scales. Child’s pictorial sleepiness scale, CSHQ, Sleep evaluation questionnaire,
Epworth sleepiness scale, actigraphy.
SR predicted less positive affective response and poorer parental reported ER. No change in negative affect responses or ER.
32 Wang et al. (2019)83 1625 Assessments from 5 to 17 years of age Longitudinal - - Dysregulation profile of the CBCL. CBCL Persistent sleep problems, measured over a span from five to 17 years found to contribute to a ten-time increased risk for developing regulatory difficulties.
33 Weissbluth (1981)64 60 (0.6) Cross-sectional - - Carey infant temperament questionnaire. Sleep interview. Significant negative correlations between TST and mood, adaptability, rhythmicity, withdrawal, and persistence.
Children described as “difficult” had shorter sleep duration than “easy” children.

Abbreviations: Bedtime issues, Excessive daytime sleepiness, Night awakenings, Regularity and duration of sleep, Snoring (BEARS); (Brief) infant-toddler social emotional assessment (B)ITSEA); Child behavior checklist (CBCL); Children’s sleep habits questionnaire (CSHQ); Electrocardiography (ECG); Emotion regulation (ER); Facial electromyography (fEMG); Heart rate deceleration (HRD); International affective picture system (IAPS); Late positive potential (LPP); Napping (N); Nap deprivation (ND); Polysomnography (PSG); Positive and negative affect schedule (for children) (PANAS (-C); Profile of mood states (POMS); Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA); Strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ); Sleep extension (SE); Sleep restriction (SR); Slow wave activity (SWA); Total sleep time (TST).