Twitches emerge postnatally during quiet sleep in human infants and are synchronized with sleep spindles.

In humans and other mammals, the stillness of sleep is punctuated by bursts of rapid eye movements (REMs) and myoclonic twitches of the limbs. Like the spontaneous activity that arises from the sensory periphery in other modalities (e.g.

Spatiotemporal organization of myoclonic twitching in sleeping human infants.

During the perinatal period in mammals when active sleep predominates, skeletal muscles twitch throughout the body. We have hypothesized that myoclonic twitches provide unique insight into the functional status of the human infant's nervous system. However, assessments of the rate and patterning of twitching have largely been restricted to infant rodents.