Kids Speaking Up

Posts Tagged ‘sleep mode’

As the child grows, the way you sleep varies greatly. The way in which sleep is called sleep pattern. Because this pattern of sleep changes during growth, there is some confusion among parents and family about what was normal or abnormal.

From pregnancy and up to the first three months of age, there are more drastic changes. Before 24 weeks gestation, the fetus shows a specific pattern of immaturity. At 32 weeks gestation, sleep pattern changes and becomes more unstable. In that period are seen rapid eye movements, body movements and breathing is irregular. Combined with periods of “quiet” where there are no major movements.

After 38 weeks of life, these periods can be sorted into categories: warning stage (when awake and is equivalent to wakefulness), sleep is not active (deep sleep and relaxed) and active sleep (rapid eye movement) . But there are also periods of sleep that can not be classified in any of the above categories or those in transition, ie the passage from one to another category.

The proportion of sleep at different stages of childhood is variable. After 30 weeks of gestation active sleep occupies 80% of total sleep time, diminishes after birth to 50% from where it slows down gradually until, at 2 years of age, a proportion around 23% and stays there until old age. Read the rest of this entry »