Three mother-infant pairs were recorded together during their hospital stay for a total of 5 nights following delivery. Infants slept in their bassinets in the newborn nursery while their mothers slept on the obstetrical ward. Physiologic measures of sleep in each were monitored simultaneously by a single, centrally located polygraph. Both the infants and their mothers demonstrated characteristic sleep cycles and sleep stage proportions independent of each other. No temporal relationship between infant and maternal sleep states were observed. These findings are discussed with respect to previous reports suggesting associations between sleep patterns of mothers and their infants.
Sleep Physiology - Mother-Infant Sleep - REM Sleep - EEG
