Ficca G, Fagioli I, Giganti F, Salzarulo P
Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy.
Early Hum Dev. 1999 Jul;55(3):219-28. doi: 10.1016/s0378-3782(99)00016-x.
Spontaneous awakenings from nocturnal sleep were studied in a sample of 48 healthy infants (M = 26, F = 22), in four age groups (1 to 7 weeks, 8 to 15 weeks, 17 to 22 weeks, 25 to 54 weeks). Consistent with previous data, the number of awakenings is reported less frequently at later ages, owing to a lower frequency of awakenings out of REM sleep. Like young adults, infants in all age groups awake more often from REM than from quiet sleep (QS); this is particularly evident in the first 6 months of life, less so in the second. The duration of the bouts of wakefulness following awakenings remains stable with age. Awakenings out of QS are followed by longer periods of wakefulness than those out of REM sleep, although in older infants the duration is considerably reduced. Night sleep first shows a decrease in the number of awakenings out of REM sleep and then continues after the sixth month of life with the shortening of the wakefulness after awakenings out of QS. In the two younger groups, the distribution of the awakenings shows two main peaks and one main peak differently located during the night; a polymodal pattern appears in group 3, and is even more evident in group 4. It should be stressed that several changes as a function of age occur in the second 6 months of life, indicating this as a period of intense developmental change in sleep-wake rhythms.
对48名健康婴儿（男26名，女22名）的样本进行了夜间睡眠自然觉醒的研究，这些婴儿分为四个年龄组（1至7周、8至15周、17至22周、25至54周）。与先前数据一致，由于快速眼动（REM）睡眠中觉醒频率较低，后期年龄段报告的觉醒次数较少。与年轻人一样，所有年龄组的婴儿从REM睡眠中醒来的频率都高于安静睡眠（QS）；这在生命的前6个月尤为明显，在第二个6个月则不太明显。觉醒后清醒时段的持续时间随年龄保持稳定。QS睡眠中觉醒后的清醒时间比REM睡眠中觉醒后的更长，不过在较大婴儿中，持续时间会大幅缩短。夜间睡眠首先表现为REM睡眠中觉醒次数减少，然后在生命的第六个月之后，QS睡眠中觉醒后的清醒时间缩短。在两个较年轻的组中，觉醒分布在夜间呈现出两个主要峰值和一个位置不同的主要峰值；在第3组中出现了多峰模式，在第4组中更为明显。应该强调的是，在生命的第二个6个月中会发生一些随年龄变化的情况，表明这是睡眠 - 觉醒节律发生强烈发育变化的时期。
