Video Evidence That London Infants Can Resettle Themselves Back to Sleep After Waking in the Night, as well as Sleep for Long Periods, by 3 Months of Age
Open Access
- 1 June 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
- Vol. 36 (5), 324-329
- https://doi.org/10.1097/dbp.0000000000000166
Abstract
Objective: Most infants become settled at night by 3 months of age, whereas infants not settled by 5 months are likely to have long-term sleep-waking problems. We assessed whether normal infant development in the first 3 months involves increasing sleep-period length or the ability to resettle autonomously after waking in the night. Methods: One hundred one infants were assessed at 5 weeks and 3 months of age using nighttime infrared video recordings and parental questionnaires. Results: The clearest development was in sleep length; 45% of infants slept continuously for ≥5 hours at night at 3 months compared with 10% at 5 weeks. In addition, around a quarter of infants woke and resettled themselves back to sleep in the night at each age. Autonomous resettling at 5 weeks predicted prolonged sleeping at 3 months suggesting it may be a developmental precursor. Infants reported by parents to sleep for a period of 5 hours or more included infants who resettled themselves and those with long sleeps. Three-month olds fed solely breast milk were as likely to self-resettle or have long sleep bouts as infants fed formula or mixed breast and formula milk. Conclusions: Infants are capable of resettling themselves back to sleep in the first 3 months of age; both autonomous resettling and prolonged sleeping are involved in “sleeping through the night” at an early age. Findings indicate the need for physiological studies of how arousal, waking, and resettling develop into sustained sleeping and of how environmental factors support these endogenous and behavioral processes.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cross-cultural differences in infant and toddler sleepSleep Medicine, 2010
- Clinical practiceEuropean Journal of Pediatrics, 2009
- Bed‐sharing practices of initially breastfed infants in the first 6 months of lifeInfant and Child Development, 2007
- Use of a behavioural programme in the first 3 months to prevent infant crying and sleeping problemsJournal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2001
- Economic evaluation of strategies for managing crying and sleeping problemsArchives of Disease in Childhood, 2001
- Sleep Homeostasis and Models of Sleep RegulationJournal of Biological Rhythms, 1999
- Co‐morbidity of crying and feeding problems with sleeping problems in infancy: Concurrent and predictive associationsEarly Development and Parenting, 1995
- The Incidence of Sleeping Problems in Preterm and Fullterm Infants Discharged from Neonatal Special Care Units: An Epidemiological Longitudinal StudyJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1995
- The Evaluation and Treatment of Sleep Disturbances in Young ChildrenJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1993
- Night Waking in Early Infancy: Part IArchives of Disease in Childhood, 1957