PSY 4127 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Circadian Rhythm, Memory Consolidation, Slow-Wave Sleep
4 Jun 2018
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Chapter 3: Life Cycles & Sleep
Two basic principles underly the understanding of sleep in normal children: (1) sleep behaviour in
children must be viewed within a biopsychosocial framework. Although sleep structure,
organization, and regulation are governed by intrinsic biological processes, children sleep is also
shaped by cultural values, parental beliefs, and social systems. (2) all aspects of sleep behaviour in
children exhibit large variability among individuals across cultures.
INFANCY
• sleep of newborns is distributed across day and night
• after a few weeks, infants gain the ability to sustain longer episodes of sleep and waking, with sleep
consolidating towards the night time, nocturnal sleep duration increasing and daytime sleep
declining.
• usually begin sleeping through the night at 6-9 months
EARLY CHILDHOOD
• stop naming between 3-5y
• 20% wake up at least one time each night, 50% one time per week
• such awakenings are considered a consequence of nocturnal arousals driven by the ultradian
rhythm of sleep cycles
Major processes in child development influence the sleep behaviour of preschoolers:
i. increased independent locomotion may result in parent bedsharing when a child awakens in the
middle of the night called reactive co-sleeping
ii. cognitive development may produce nighttime fears as well as interests in transitional objects
that facilitate children transitions from waking to sleeping
iii. attachment issues may emerge and manifest as separation anxiety leading to frequent night
awakenings and parent-child bedsharing
iv. the toddlers drive for autonomy may be associated with frequent bedtime resistance
Early School Age
• young children who are short sleepers during early childhood generally remain short sleepers as
they grow into teenage years.
Adolescence
• sleep need does not decline in the course of adolescence’s
• they need 9.25 on average
• however outside demands usually reduce the amount of time the spend sleeping
Behavioural States: constellations of functional patterns and physiological characteristics of sleep and
wakefulness that are relatively stable and occur in a predictable manner. In the young infant, five
behavioural states are defined on the basis of direct behavioural observations and sometimes
accompanied by non-invasive measures like heart rate or motor activity.
Quiet sleep, active sleep, quite alertness, active alertness, and vocalization (crying).
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