Nancy,
I spent many hours watching newborns sleep while I was in graduate school.
I suspect that your student is looking for the eye movements for which the
sleep state is named. She probably won't see them. In newborns these
movements are slower and less obvious than later in development. However,
she will be able to distinguish two sleep states. Deep sleep is
characterized by deep and regular breathing with no spontaneous activity
except an occasional facial expression or startle. Light sleep is
characterized by shallower and more irregular breathing, eye movement
between closed lids might be visible, "facial twitching and grimacing is
common." (These descriptions are based on (Als et al 1982). Obviously, the
light sleep state is analogous to REM sleep in older folks. Of course she
could hook the infant up to a polygraph and record the infant's EEG.
I hope this helps.
Dennis
Dennis M. Goff
Dept. of Psychology
Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Lynchburg, VA 24503
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Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 9:06 AM
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Subject: zzzzzzzzz
Listikins,
A student in my Santa Monica Class who does child care for a healthy young
infant said that she's never seen the child in REM and wondered if it's
possible that the child didn't have it. I said I thought that it was not
possible for a normally developing or health person not to have REM sleep
but
thought I should run it by the more knowledgeable list denizens anyway.
Wouldn't there be something terribly wrong with the baby if it didn't have
REM?
Also, I am guessing that people who have certain kinds of brain damage and
are comatose or "vegetative" probably don't have REM. Am I correct in my
surmise? Please advise. Thanks so much.
Nancy Melucci
SMC et al.
Huntington Beach, CA
