Compared to full term , premature infants exhibit significant differences in sleep structure , which mainly include differences in electroencephalographic spectral values , in total sleep time and in arousal threshold .
Furthermore , prematurity seems to be a risk factor of sleep breathing disorders in childhood and adolescence .
Conclusions The alterations in sleep patterns are an outcome of prematurity ( immaturity of nervous system ) as well as of postnatal factors and comorbidities .
Sleep problems in this population of infants seems to be a missing piece of the puzzle of impaired neurodevelopment .
Background Sleep undergoes changes from birth to adulthood , while sleep disorders are associated with various cognitive deficiencies in childhood .
In parallel , prematurity is known to predispose to poor neurodevelopmental outcomes .
Our aim is to provide literature data about factors influencing sleep in the premature infants and sleep outcomes in this population .
Neurophysiologic Assessment of Neonatal Sleep Organization: Preliminary Results of a Randomized, Controlled Trial of Skin Contact With Preterm Infants
BACKGROUND . Sleep is important to brain organization , but few strategies to promote sleep among premature infants have been tested . Behaviorally based measures of sleep have shown increased quiet sleep ( QS ) and decreased active sleep ( AS ) during skin-to-skin contact ( SSC ) with the mother , but these results have not been confirmed with objective electroencephalographic/polysomnographic measures of sleep organization . Important differences exist between behavioral and electroencephalographic/polysomnographic definitions of sleep state . METHODS . Data for the first 28 relatively healthy , preterm subjects of an ongoing r and omized trial of one 2- to 3-hour session of SSC or incubator care between feedings are reported here . Infants were positioned prone , inclined , and nested in an incubator during the 2- to 3-hour pretest period , were fed , and then went into the test period of SSC or incubator care . Infants were left largely undisturbed throughout testing . A mixed-model regression analysis compared the test-pretest differences in outcome measures within and between groups . RESULTS . Results showed that arousals were significantly lower in the SSC group , compared with the control group , for the entire study period and for test-pretest matched segments of QS and AS . Rapid eye movement was significantly lower for the SSC group for the study period and AS segments . Indeterminate sleep was significantly lower for the SSC group when confounding environmental variables were included in the regression analysis . When 4 subjects who experienced excessive ambient light levels during SSC were removed from analysis , QS increased during SSC . CONCLUSIONS . The patterns demonstrated by the SSC group are analogous to more-mature sleep organization . SSC may be used as an intervention to improve sleep organization in this population of preterm infants
Compared to full term , premature infants exhibit significant differences in sleep structure , which mainly include differences in electroencephalographic spectral values , in total sleep time and in arousal threshold .
Furthermore , prematurity seems to be a risk factor of sleep breathing disorders in childhood and adolescence .
Conclusions The alterations in sleep patterns are an outcome of prematurity ( immaturity of nervous system ) as well as of postnatal factors and comorbidities .
Sleep problems in this population of infants seems to be a missing piece of the puzzle of impaired neurodevelopment .
Background Sleep undergoes changes from birth to adulthood , while sleep disorders are associated with various cognitive deficiencies in childhood .
In parallel , prematurity is known to predispose to poor neurodevelopmental outcomes .
Our aim is to provide literature data about factors influencing sleep in the premature infants and sleep outcomes in this population .