# Influence of prenatal air pollutant and stress exposures on sleep outcomes in urban preschool-aged children

> **NIH NIH R01** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2022 · $837,851

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Sleep problems are one of the most common health concerns among parents of young children. Adequate
sleep is important to normal growth and development and persistent early childhood sleep problems impact a
host of behavioral, cognitive, and physical health outcomes, with potential lifelong consequences. Studies
demonstrate a higher prevalence of sleep disturbances in racial/ethnic minorities, particularly African
Americans and Latinos when compared to whites, independent of socioeconomic status. The etiology of sleep
difficulties emerging in early life, as well as observed disparities, remain largely unknown. Sleep can be
conceptualized as “a complex phenotype of developmental neural plasticity”. Development of the neural
architecture of sleep begins in utero, through a sequence of carefully orchestrated stages. When the fetus is
exposed to environmental neurotoxins, central nervous system programming, including the neural connectivity
framework involved in sleep regulation, can be disrupted resulting in altered sleep architecture and efficiency in
early childhood. Associations between prenatal neurotoxins and postnatal sleep disorders may depend on
timing of exposure as well as dose. Candidate neurotoxins include prenatal exposure to ambient fine
particulate matter (PM2.5) and maternal stress. Moreover, effects of prenatal pollution can be enhanced by
concomitant exposure to stress. Neurodevelopmental effects of in utero exposure to ambient air pollutants can
be further modified by race/ethnicity or fetal sex. Early life temperament traits are also important determinants
of emerging behavior problems including disordered sleep, with studies showing both mediating and
moderating effects on associations between environmental risk factors and sleep behaviors. We leverage a
longitudinal urban multi-ethnic pregnancy cohort (n=450 mother-child pairs), with detailed characterization of
prenatal exposure to ambient PM2.5, maternal psychological stress (lifetime and current adverse life events,
maternal psychological functioning, and biological stress response indexed by maternal hair cortisol), and
infant temperament, to begin to examine associations among these factors and childhood sleep outcomes.
This initiative will support sleep phenotyping at age 4-5 years, ascertained through standardized parent-
reported sleep questionnaires/diaries, wearable accelerometers, and in-home polysomnography (PSG) in
order to: (1) examine associations between prenatal PM2.5 exposure and adverse child sleep outcomes,
accounting for timing of exposure; (2) examine whether maternal stress and psychobiological correlates,
assessed in pregnancy, considered independently and as mixtures, predict adverse child sleep outcomes; (3)
examine whether PM2.5 effects are modified by prenatal stress; (4) explore whether these associations are
further modified by i) race/ethnicity or ii) fetal sex; and (5) examine whether prenatal air pollution and/or stress
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10441413
- **Project number:** 5R01HL147328-04
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Sonali Bose
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $837,851
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-24 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10441413

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10441413, Influence of prenatal air pollutant and stress exposures on sleep outcomes in urban preschool-aged children (5R01HL147328-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10441413. Licensed CC0.

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