Sleep
The natural, periodic suspension of consciousness needed to revive the body.
There is no one acceptable pattern of sleep for all children. As a child develops from infancy through childhood and adolescence, sleep patterns change. In addition, there are also differences between the sleep needs of children at the same stage of development; some children naturally sleep for a shorter period of time, while others need a greater than average amount of sleep. The vast majority of children get enough sleep to meet their needs. As long as a child's sleep pattern is consistent, and she does not exhibit signs of excessive sleepiness or fatigue during the daytime, the quantity and quality of her sleep are probably adequate.
Infancy
Newborn infants sleep in short periods throughout the day and night, totaling up to 18 hours out of every 24. Like all human sleep, the sleep of young infants is divided into two types, non-REM sleep, which gradually progresses through four stages of increasingly deep sleep, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the lighter sleep during which dreaming occurs. About half of a newborn's sleep time is spent in REM sleep. These are the periods when infants are most likely to squirm, yawn, or make soft noises in their sleep, and also the times when they are most easily awakened.
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