Sleep Patterns In Children Research Articles

Sleep pattern in children with intractable epilepsy and mental retardation.

Four cases with intractable epilepsy and mental retardation (Epi + MR), four cases of mental retardation (MR), one case of mental retardation without epileptic seizures for the last several years (MR + (Epi] and two normal children were studied on their sleep pattern. Besides these, two cases of epilepsy (Epi) were examined. Awake time increased in the Epi + MR group. Slow wave sleep decreased markedly in the Epi + MR group. REM sleep decreased in the MR + (Epi) and Epi + MR groups. REM density was lowered in the following order: normal----Epi----MR----Epi + MR groups. The difference of sleep pattern among the normal, Epi and MR groups was not exhibited clearly, but severe sleep disturbances were shown in the Epi + MR group, implicating the severe brain dysfunction in the cortex and the brain stem.

Sleep REM latency in hyperkinetic boys.

This study compared the sleep-cycle characteristics of 16 hyperkinetic boys with those of 12 normal boys. The results indicated no differences between the two groups, with one exception: a subset of the hyperkinetic children had markedly short REM latencies.

Iron supplementation of the diet in full-terminfants: A controlled study

To determine the clinical and laboratory effects of medicinal iron supplementation,602 healthy full-term infants were studied. Three hundred twenty-nine infants were given 30 mg. of elemental iron per day, and 273 were given a placebo. Fifty-five per cent of the original group completed the supplement program (11 months), and 46.5 per cent completed the total 18 months of the study period. Forty-one per cent were followed for a total of two years; these infants were evaluated in detail. No objective benefit from the iron medication was found, but a transient decrease in the serum iron saturation was noted in the placebo group. Side effects were minimal. Subjectively the mothers of the iron-supplemented group had less complaints about their children's sleep pattern or daytime irritability, and reported fewer illnesses. However, the more objective evidence of illnesses recorded in the infants' charts did not support this difference. It is our belief that normal healthy infants who readily accept solid food will not be subject to iron deficiency anemia and do not benefit from iron supplementation.

Post-natal growth of the arterial net in the human cerebral pia mater.

IMPORTANT brain development takes place in the early post-natal period, forty-one to fifty-three weeks after conception. Parmelee et al.1 have reported the establishment of childhood sleep patterns and EEG activity, and Ellingson2 has recorded a decrease in latency of light-evoked brain potentials, almost down to the adult baseline of 80 ms, during this period.