Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Jan;31(1):47-54.
doi: 10.1093/sleep/31.1.47.

Maturation of spontaneous arousals in healthy infants

Enza Montemitro  1 , Patricia Franco, Sonia Scaillet, Ineko Kato, Jose Groswasser, Maria Pia Villa, Andre Kahn, Jean-Pierre Sastre, René Ecochard, Gerard Thiriez, Jian-Sheng Lin
Affiliations

Maturation of spontaneous arousals in healthy infants

Enza Montemitro et al. Sleep. 2008 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: The propensity to arouse from sleep is an integrative part of the sleep structure and can have direct implications in various clinical conditions. This study was conducted to evaluate the maturation of spontaneous arousals during the first year of life in healthy infants.

Design: Nineteen infants were studied with nighttime polysomnography on 3 occasions: aged 2 to 3 months, 5 to 6 months, and 8 to 9 months. Ten infants with a median age of 3 weeks were added to the main study to assess the maturation of arousals from birth. The infants were born full-term, were healthy at the time of study, and had no history of apnea. Sleep-state and cardiorespiratory parameters were scored according to recommended criteria. Arousals were differentiated into subcortical activations or cortical arousals, according to the presence of autonomic and/or electroencephalographic changes. Frequencies of subcortical activations and cortical arousals were studied at different ages in both rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep.

Results: During sleep time, the frequency of total arousals, cortical arousals, and subcortical activations decreased with age. The maturation of the arousal events differed according to sleep states and types of arousals. With age, cortical arousals increased in REM sleep (P = 0.006) and decreased in NREM sleep (P = 0.01). Subcortical activations decreased with age in REM (P < 0.001) and NREM sleep (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: During total sleep time, the frequency of cortical arousals and subcortical activations decreased with maturation. However, the maturation process was different between cortical arousals and subcortical activations. This finding suggests a difference in the maturational sequence of the different brain centers regulating arousals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Maturation of sleep efficiency (SE, %), non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep (%), rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (%), and awake (AW) time after sleep (%) from 0 to 1 month to 8 to 9 months of age.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Maturation of total arousals, cortical arousals, and subcortical activations during total sleep time from 0 to 1 month to 8 to 9 months of age. The frequency of arousals is given as an index (number of arousals/h of sleep).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Maturation of cortical arousals from 0–1 month to 8–9 months of age in total sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and non-REM (NREM) sleep. The frequency of cortical arousals is given as an index (number of arousals/h of sleep).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Maturation of subcortical activations from 0–1 month to 8–9 months of age in total sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and non-REM (NREM) sleep. The frequency of subcortical activations is given as an index (number of arousals/h of sleep).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Evolution with age of cortical on subcortical ratio in total sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and non-REM (NREM sleep. The cortical to subcortical ratio represents the ratio between cortical arousalson subcorticalactivaion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Newman NM, Trindler JA, Phillips KA, Jordan K, Cruickshank J. Arousal deficit: mechanisms of the sudden infant death syndrome ? Aust Paediatr J. 1989;25:196–201. - PubMed
    1. Moruzzi G, Magoun HW. Brain stem reticular formation and activation of the EEG. J Neuropsychiatry. 1995;7:251–267. - PubMed
    1. Lijowska A.S., Reed N.W., Chiodini B.A.M., Thach B.T. Sequential arousal and airway-defensive behavior of infants in asphyxial sleep environments. J Appl Physiol. 1997;83:219–228. - PubMed
    1. Rees K, Spence DPS, Earis JE, Calverley PMA. Arousal responses from apneic events during non-rapid-eye-movement sleep. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1995;152:1016–1021. - PubMed
    1. Kato I, Franco P, Groswasser J, Scaillet S, Kelmanson I, Togari H, Kahn A. Incomplete arousal processes in infants who were victims of sudden death. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2003;168:1298–1303. - PubMed