Infant Sleep Patterns

People sleep nearly one third of their lives and infants sleep significantly more than adults (Franken, Kopp, Landolt, & Luthi, 2009). The function of sleep has hypothesized by different researchers; however, surprisingly there is no general consensus as to what the function and purpose of sleep actually is. It is known that sleep deprivation can have some serious consequences, especially in infants. The reason for this is that growth cycles as well as other developmental and functional processes occur in both the brain and body during sleep (Franken et al., 2009). Since getting adequate sleep is vital in infants it is important to understand their sleeping needs and patterns. In order to understand how to establish safe sleep patterns for children less than 18 months of age is important to understand the stages of sleep, the hypothetical functions of sleep, and the needs of infants regarding sleep...
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