We often think of sleep as just giving rest to the body and mind, but for children, it is anything but passive. Behind closed eyelids, their brains are buzzing with essential activity like building memories, managing emotions, and growing in every sense of the word. On World Brain Day, we turned to experts to know if sleep is really the ultimate secret sauce for a child’s brain and body development.

What Happens in a Child’s Brain While They Sleep?

“Sleep is not merely a time of rest for children,” explains Dr. Puja Kapoor, paediatric neurologist and co-founder of Continua Kids. “It is a critical period during which their brain grows, repairs, and develops.” She says that while it may seem like kids are just recharging, what actually unfolds is a complex neurological process.

When we sleep, our brain processes and stores everything we have done during the day as memory. "If we do not sleep well, our experiences do not consolidate into memory, and children may experience brain fog, irritability, and reduced learning capacity," she explains.

According to her, this reformatting helps the brain function better the next day. “Without this rest, children may become anxious, irritable, and less capable of absorbing new information or coping with day-to-day tasks,” she adds.

Spot the Signs: Is Your Child Getting Enough Sleep?

Dr. Kapoor lists the tell-tale signs of sleep deprivation: poor attention, emotional instability, hyperactivity, and trouble understanding or following instructions. And it is not a one-size-fits-all situation. “Newborns require around 16–18 hours of sleep; toddlers between 10–11 hours plus an afternoon nap; and older children around 8–9 hours of uninterrupted sleep,” she advises. For children under five, afternoon naps are essential for brain development.

Beware the Bright Screens and Late Meals

Modern habits can sabotage this much-needed rest. “Please end the use of TV or mobile phones at least 2 to 3 hours before bedtime,” warns Dr. Kapoor. “The light emitted from screens inhibits melatonin, the hormone responsible for sleep, from being produced, which disrupts sleep cycles.” She recommends creating a soothing bedtime routine with soft lighting, quiet music, cosy bedding, or even a lukewarm foot bath to help kids transition into sleep mode. And yes, dinner matters too. “Going to bed hungry can further interrupt their sleep,” she says.

Sleep and Brain Growth: The Pulmonologist’s Perspective

Echoing these views is Dr. Vikas Mittal, pulmonologist at Wellness Home Clinic and Sleep Centre, Delhi, who adds that the early years are a time of rapid brain development. “During sleep, the brain consolidates memories, processes new information, and strengthens neural connections,” he says. “It also supports emotional regulation and decision-making skills. Growth hormones essential for physical and neurological development are released during this time.”

Dr. Mittal also points to the long-term risks of poor sleep. “Sleep deprivation in children can result in inattention, memory problems, irritability, and hyperactivity symptoms often mistaken for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),” he explains. Ongoing lack of sleep could even reshape areas of the brain responsible for emotional control and academic performance.

Look Out for Red Flags

According to Dr. Mittal, warning signs of sleep deprivation include frequent mood swings, difficulty waking up, daytime sleepiness, or even clumsiness. These could point to not just fatigue but also underlying sleep disorders.

His solution? Structure. “Maintain consistent bedtime and wake-up times even on weekends,” he suggests. The sleep environment should be quiet, cool, and dark and definitely screen-free at least an hour before bed. “Encouraging calming activities like reading or listening to soft music can help signal the body that it is time to wind down,” he adds.

Treat Sleep Like a Daily Vitamin

Both Dr. Kapoor and Dr. Mittal agree that sleep is not just important; it is foundational. It impacts memory, learning, mood, physical growth, and even how well children adapt to their world.

Parents, take note: sleep is not optional. It is as essential as food, love, and education. By making bedtime a calm, screen-free, consistent routine, you are not just giving your child rest; you are investing in their future.

Mental health is a big cause of concern for people; however, not many consider how it also affects young kids and teens. The National Alliance on Mental Health stats show that about 50 % of all mental health conditions begin by the age of 14 and 75% by age 24. What’s surprising is that one out of six kids have anxiety or depression, however only half of them get help.

Despite growing concerns about the mental health of young people in the U.S., a new survey reveals that most public schools are not screening students for psychological problems. According to a survey report published in the Jama Network Open, show that there is a big barrier that schools must bridge in terms of mental health help.

Low Rates of Mental Health Screening

A survey asked over 1,000 public school principals about mental health screenings. The results showed that fewer than one-third, specifically just under 31%, of schools actually check students for mental health problems. This is happening years after the top health official in the U.S., the Surgeon General, announced that there was a mental health crisis among young people. This crisis was linked to things like social media, the COVID-19 pandemic, bullying, and other factors that led to more depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide among young Americans.

Challenges in Providing Care

The survey also pointed out big problems schools face when it comes to mental health. About 40% of principals said it was hard to make sure students get the right help if they talk about feeling anxious or depressed. Researchers believe these difficulties come from several things, such as not having enough money or tools, not knowing enough about how to do mental health screenings, and worrying that checking students would mean too much extra work for school staff. Even though not many schools are screening for mental health, some are offering help to students. The survey found these important points:

• Nearly 80% of schools that do screen for mental health issues usually tell parents if their child shows signs of depression or anxiety.
• More than 70% of principals reported that their school provides in-person treatment for students dealing with mental health problems.
• 53% of principals said they might send a student to a therapist outside of the school, in the local community, for more help.

Factors Influencing Screening

The study also looked at what makes a school more likely to screen students for mental health. It found that schools with 450 or more students were more likely to screen. Also, schools where most of the students were from racial or ethnic minority groups were 33% more likely to conduct mental health screenings.

Experts suggest that if there were policies to give more money from the government (both federal and state) for mental health in schools, and if schools had more mental health staff, it could lead to more screenings. This would also make it more likely that students would get the treatment they need.

Supporting Student Mental Health

According to the NAMI finding mental health conditions early and getting effective treatment can make a huge difference for children and their families. It's crucial that we make it possible for all schools to offer better access to these important services. Policies should also focus on making it easier to provide mental health support in schools, addressing issues like problems with getting paid for services, making effective treatments available to more students, and ensuring fair access for everyone.

How Schools Can Help

Schools have a very important role to play in helping children and young people get help sooner. School staff—and even students themselves—can learn how to spot the warning signs of a developing mental health condition and how to connect someone to care.

By offering school-based mental health services (with professionals in schools) and school-linked mental health services (connecting to community resources), schools can lower the barriers that keep young people and families from getting the treatment and support they need. This is especially important for communities of color and other groups who are often underserved.

When we invest in children's mental health to ensure they receive the right care at the right time, we improve the lives of children, young people, families, and our entire communities.

Often solutions for long standing issues come from the most unexpected places. A new study has found that dogs could detect Parkinson's early, which not only improves the results of treatment. We have seen many instances of animals helping people with chronic conditions navigate their daily lives with the help of a service dog whether it is a seeing eye dog, a service dog for people with fainting or heart conditions etc.

Dogs' amazing sense of smell has always been a big help to people. They've been used for everything from finding criminals to sniffing out hidden human remains and illegal drugs. Their powerful noses have even helped detect diseases like prostate cancer, malaria, and COVID-19. Now, it looks like their incredible sense of smell can also pick up on problems with the brain and nervous system.

Canines Detect Parkinson's Disease

A new study published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease reveals that dogs can be trained to detect Parkinson's disease solely through their sense of smell. Researchers found that two specially trained canines demonstrated high accuracy in identifying individuals with confirmed Parkinson's based on skin swabs.

When the dogs were given samples of skin swabs, they were able to correctly identify people with confirmed Parkinson's disease about 80% of the time. What's even more impressive is that they were right about 98% of the time when they said someone didn't have Parkinson's. The study also noted that the dogs could still find Parkinson's even if the person had other health issues. This shows how incredibly precise their sense of smell is.

Science Behind the Scent

Parkinson's disease is a condition that gets worse over time, making it harder for people to move. It's caused by the death or damage of brain cells that produce a chemical called dopamine. An early sign of this disease is when the skin produces too much sebum, an oily substance. Scientists thought this extra sebum might have a unique smell that dogs could be trained to recognize, allowing them to detect the disease.

For the study, five dogs were initially trained to smell for Parkinson's. However, only a Golden Retriever named Bumper and a Black Lab named Peanut proved to be skilled enough. They trained for weeks using over 200 samples from people with Parkinson's and healthy individuals. The dogs were rewarded for every correct identification, either by finding a Parkinson's sample or ignoring a healthy one.

In the final tests, called "double-blind testing," even the researchers didn't know which samples belonged to whom—only a computer did. This ensured the results were fair. Both Bumper and Peanut were highly accurate at finding the disease during these tests.

Implications for Early Diagnosis

Researchers suggest that using dogs could lead to a fast, pain-free, and affordable way to find Parkinson's disease.

This study emphasizes the importance of these findings because there's currently no early test for the disease. Symptoms can begin up to 20 years before they become obvious enough for a diagnosis. The research shows that an early diagnosis is critical because starting treatment sooner could help slow the disease's progression and reduce the intensity of symptoms. Ultimately, this research suggests that dogs could play a major role in early detection and better management of Parkinson's.

We often think of anxiety as an emotional or mental struggle- a racing heart before a big meeting, a persistent knot in the stomach, the endless loop of worst-case scenarios playing out in our minds but what if anxiety was doing more than just weighing on your mood? What if, over time, it was actually damaging your brain?

Chronic anxiety, if left untreated, doesn't just affect how you feel. Emerging neuroscience suggests it can also cause structural and functional damage to the brain, potentially speeding up the onset of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

According to Dr. Prajwal Rao, DM Neurology and Head of the Department of Neurology at Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Center in Pune, “We’re starting to view anxiety not just as a symptom of stress or a psychiatric diagnosis, but as a biological driver that may influence long-term brain health.” That insight is leading researchers and clinicians to reevaluate how they screen, diagnose, and treat anxiety—especially in older adults.

This is more than a mental health story. It’s a wake-up call about how your mind and body are more interconnected than we ever realized—and why ignoring chronic anxiety could have irreversible consequences.

How Does The Brain React on Chronic Stress?

At the core of this mind-body connection lies the body’s stress response system, known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This system is built for short-term survival, it floods your body with cortisol to help you react in fight-or-flight situations. But when anxiety is chronic, the HPA axis stays overactivated, keeping cortisol levels high for too long.

Dr. Rao explains, “Sustained cortisol exposure has neurotoxic effects. It weakens the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory and learning. Over time, this can lead to measurable cognitive decline.”

This means that someone living with long-term anxiety isn’t just emotionally fatigued—they may also be more vulnerable to diseases involving memory loss, such as Alzheimer’s.

Recent imaging studies support what neurologists like Dr. Rao have long suspected. People with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) frequently show reduced hippocampal volume, a condition also observed in patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s. These findings suggest a troubling overlap between anxiety-related brain changes and those seen in neurodegenerative diseases.

But the damage doesn’t stop there. Chronic anxiety can also trigger neuroinflammation, the process by which the brain’s immune system begins attacking its own cells. Neuroinflammation has been implicated in a wide range of neurological diseases—from Parkinson’s to ALS—raising the stakes for early anxiety treatment.

Can Poor Sleep Be The Silent Aggravator of Neurodegeneration?

Another hidden piece of the puzzle is sleep. The brain’s self-cleaning system, known as the glymphatic system, becomes active primarily during deep sleep. It flushes out toxic proteins like beta-amyloid, the same proteins that clump together to form plaques in Alzheimer’s patients.

Chronic anxiety often disrupts sleep, reducing both its quality and duration. “When deep sleep is compromised, the brain loses its opportunity to detoxify itself,” says Dr. Rao. “This may allow harmful proteins to build up, accelerating cognitive decline.”

What Role Genetics Play For Increased Vulnerability?

While not everyone with anxiety will develop a neurodegenerative disease, some individuals may be more biologically susceptible than others. Genetics appears to play a role—especially in people who have both anxiety-prone temperaments and gene variants that affect stress response and neural resilience.

These individuals may have a double disadvantage, they’re more likely to experience anxiety, and their brains may be less equipped to handle the long-term effects of that stress. Early screening and intervention in such high-risk populations could be crucial in delaying or preventing serious brain-related illnesses.

Is Anxiety in Older Adults An Overlooked Danger?

One of the most concerning aspects of this connection is how frequently anxiety is underdiagnosed in older adults. Symptoms like restlessness, irritability or sleep problems are often written off as “normal aging” especially when there’s no obvious cause.

This is a missed opportunity, says Dr. Rao. “Anxiety in the elderly shouldn’t be dismissed—it may be a modifiable risk factor for neurodegeneration. By treating it proactively, we’re not only improving emotional wellbeing but potentially preserving cognitive function.”

What This Means for People With Anxiety?

Treating anxiety isn’t just about feeling better in the moment—it could be a long-term investment in your brain health. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based stress reduction, physical exercise, and even certain medications can all help manage anxiety. But more importantly, they may help protect the brain from premature decline.

“It’s time we stop thinking of anxiety as just an emotional burden,” Dr. Rao says. “The brain and body are intimately connected. Supporting mental health is supporting brain health—and ultimately, whole-body health.”

As neuroscience continues to evolve, one truth is becoming clear: our emotional health is not separate from our physical wellbeing. Chronic anxiety, if left unchecked, may do more than drain your energy or mood. It may slowly erode the very structure of your brain.

The next time you’re tempted to push anxiety to the side or power through it, remember this—the mind can break the body. But with the right care, attention, and treatment, it can also be the first line of defense in protecting your most vital organ: your brain.