Socioeconomic disparities in sleep duration are associated with cortical thickness in children

INTRODUCTION: Disrupted sleep has been consistently linked with lower academic achievement and worse mental health in children. Less is understood about sleep as a potential factor underlying socioeconomic differences in brain morphometry in children. The goals of this study were to investigate the associations among socioeconomic factors, sleep duration, and brain morphometry in children, and to examine the roles of the sleep environment and family routines in these associations. METHODS: Participants were 5‐ to 9‐year‐old children from socioeconomically diverse families (N = 94; 61% female). Parents reported on children's weekday and weekend sleep durations, sleep environment, and family routines. High‐resolution, T1‐weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were acquired. Analyses focused on cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and amygdala and hippocampal volume. RESULTS: Results indicated that lower family income‐to‐needs ratio and parental education were significantly associated with shorter weekday sleep duration in children. Shorter weekday sleep duration was significantly associated with reduced thickness in the left middle temporal, right postcentral, and right superior frontal cortices and smaller basolateral but not centromedial amygdala volume. Family routines significantly mediated the associations of family income‐to‐needs ratio and parental education with weekday sleep duration in children. CONCLUSION: These results contribute to our understanding of sleep factors as proximal mechanisms through which socioeconomic context may alter neural development during childhood.