New research: Sleep-brain-gut link is important for infant development

QUICK SUMMARY: A new study links a baby’s sleep pattern to the infant gut microbiome.

This sleep-brain-gut link is important for infant development.

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The new study by SF Schoch et al., (2021) found infant sleep habits and neurophysiology are connected to a baby’s gut microbiome.

The main highlights from the study:

• Sleep-brain-gut link is important for infant development.
• Babies with lower diversity of gut bacteria sleep more during the day.
• Night-time sleep patterns are linked to the type of bacteria present in the infant gut.
• Sleep and the infant gut microbiome are linked to behavioural development.
• Sleep, gut bacteria and brain activity co-evolve dynamically over the first year of a baby’s life.
• Babies with different profiles of gut bacteria have different brain activity during sleep.

The study was conducted by sleep researchers Salome Kurth of the University of Fribourg and Sarah Schoch of the University of Zurich. It was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and published in Progress in Neurobiology on 16th December 2021.