Infant Sleep Disorders Essay

Infant sleep disorders: Infant sleep is very different from the sleep of young children or adults. It has a high percentage of REM sleep that fills 50% of the total sleep time, and sleep occurs in brief episodes throughout the 24-hour day. Approximately two-thirds of the day is spent in sleep. During the first three months of life, the child’s sleep appears to occur with a cyclical pattern that is slightly greater than 24 hours; therefore, the major sleep episode occurs slightly later on each successive day. This pattern, which is known as free running, is due to the underlying tendency of our biological circadian rhythms to have a period length slightly longer than 24 hours. This tendency in the infant is usually not a concern so long as the typical environmental time cues are instituted to maintain the major sleep episode over the nighttime …show more content…
As a result, the major sleep episode occurs at a slightly later time and so the sleep episode will rotate around the clock. This is called the non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome and occurs in infants only if appropriate environmental cues are not instituted. Colic is perhaps the most widely recognized cause of awakenings and crying at night in infants within the first four months of age. Usually colic occurs within the first three weeks of age and reduces in frequency so that about 50% of infants with colic will not have attacks after two months of age, and most infants will have outgrown colic by four months of age. The cause of colic is unknown and, although it is suspected of being due to stomach cramps, there is no scientific evidence to indicate that colic is of gastrointestinal cause. Current belief is that it is due to an immature central nervous system. There are some irregularities of behavior with increased arousal and sensitivity to environmental stimuli that cause the