Shaping the Brain in Sleep: Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms Across the Lifespan
A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 3
Special Issue Editors
Interests: child development; sleep; napping; early childhood; psychology; policy and practice
2. Kids Sleep Research Team, Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Interests: paediatrics; child development; neurodevelopmental disorders; sleep; sleep and breathing
Interests: child development; neurodevelopmental disorders; sleep; neurophysiology; quantitative analysis; artificial intelligence and machine learning
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue on sleep and brain development across the lifespan.
Sleep is essential for brain functioning and plays a significant role in cognition, physical health, mental health and social wellbeing. While the relationship between sleep and human functioning is well established, the understanding of the role of sleep in brain development and the mechanisms that link sleep and neurodevelopment remains relatively limited.
This Special Issue aims to highlight emerging evidence on how sleep both shapes and is shaped by brain development across the lifespan. We are particularly interested in studies examining structural and functional brain mechanisms linking sleep and neurodevelopment, as well as factors that modulate this relationship—such as genetics, neurodevelopmental conditions, environmental influences (e.g., light) and social contexts (e.g., educational settings). Contributions that identify sensitive developmental periods with the potential for sleep-related intervention are especially welcome.
This Special Issue welcomes publications from a range of disciplines and methodologies, including (but not limited to) imaging, clinical case, observational, longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. Articles focused on specific developmental periods or age ranges (e.g., early childhood, adolescents, and late adulthood) and those addressing development across the lifespan will be considered, as well as narrative, systematic or scoping reviews and meta-analyses. Publications offering new theoretical models of the relationship, processes or mechanisms connecting sleep and neurodevelopment are also highly encouraged.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Sally Staton
Dr. Jasneek Chawla
Dr. Kartik Iyer
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- sleep
- brain development
- neurodevelopment
- sensitive periods
- napping
- genetic and environmental influences
- early childhood
- adolescents
- adulthood
- lifespan development
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