24-hour behavioural states distribution in continuously fed infants.

This study compared the 24-h sleep states distribution in infants fed orally with separate meals with that in infants continuously fed from birth. Sleep was polygraphically recorded for 24 h in 12 infants (aged between 6 weeks and 14 months) continuously fed since birth through an intracaval catheter, and in 12 age-paired control infants. The amount of sleep states in each six 4-h epoch of the 24-h day was evaluated. A clear decrease of the sleep amount, concerning both Paradoxical Sleep and Quiet Sleep, was observed during the day-time in infants older than 4 months, independently from the feeding condition. This result does not support the role of feeding rhythm upon the early development of sleep pattern circadian distribution.