Book chapter
Fundamental Features of Sleep in Early Development
Fundamentals of Sleep and Circadian Science, pp.163-170
Oxford University Press, Third edition
2025
DOI: 10.1093/med/9780197756782.003.0019
Abstract
Sleep is most prevalent in early life across diverse vertebrate and invertebrate species, indicating its vital and ancient developmental contributions. But infant sleep also differs significantly from adult sleep, necessitating a developmental approach to study its complexities. For example, in human infants, sleep transitions from fragmented to consolidated patterns, a process paralleled in other animals like rats. Also, sleep’s composition changes qualitatively over time, with components of active and quiet sleep emerging gradually. The expression in early infancy of sleep pressure and rebound in response to deprivation demonstrates robust homeostatic regulation, even as that regulation changes with age. Functionally, sleep plays critical roles in brain development, supporting processes like synaptic refinement, neural circuit formation, sensorimotor integration, and ocular dominance plasticity. Understanding sleep’s developmental trajectory across species can illuminate its diverse functions and evolutionary history.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Fundamental Features of Sleep in Early Development
- Creators
- Monique LeBourgeoisPaul ShawRebecca M. C. SpencerMark S. BlumbergMarcos G. Frank
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Fundamentals of Sleep and Circadian Science, pp.163-170
- Edition
- Third edition
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press; Oxford
- DOI
- 10.1093/med/9780197756782.003.0019
- Alternative title
- Section 4 Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Sleep
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2025
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984816017202771
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