Sleep Characteristics of Infants

Abstract

From protocols kept by their mothers and from actograms, the incidence and duration of sleep was followed in 19 infants, from the 3d to the 26th week of life, under family home conditions. Even the earliest records revealed a diurnal disparity, the mean group duration of night sleep being 8.4 hrs., as against 6.4 hrs. for day sleep. The adjustment of the sleep-wakefulness pattern manifested itself mainly in a progressively more pronounced diurnal periodicity, culminating in 1 long unbroken period of night sleep and short morning and afternoon nap. The total duration of sleep/24 hrs. decreased by only about 1 hr. by the end of the period of observation.