Inverse association between Slow Wave Activity per cycle and the number of ultradian sleep cycles per night in healthy humans.

Objective: Comparisons of sleep Slow Wave Activity (SWA) during successive sleep cycles rely on the assumption that SWA in a given cycle is independent of the number of ultradian cycles present in a night. This assumption was evaluated here.

Methods: Twenty-six healthy controls with no medical, sleep or psychiatric disorders were selected among 84 candidates and their sleep was recorded at home across 2 consecutive nights after two habituation nights.

Pacifier use modifies infant's cardiac autonomic controls during sleep.

Objective: The risk for sudden infant death (SIDS) was postulated to decrease with the use of a pacifier and by conditions increasing parasympathetic tonus during sleep. We evaluated the influence of a pacifier on cardiac autonomic controls in healthy infants.

Study Design: Thirty-four healthy infants were studied polygraphically during one night: 17 infants regularly used a pacifier during sleep and 17 never used a pacifier.

Physiological relationship between autonomic reactions and arousals in infancy.

Objective: Changes in blood pressure (BP) were measured following auditory stimuli in the prone and the supine position to study the correlation between arousal from sleep and autonomic responses.

Method: Two newborns born at term, two infants and four children were recorded polygraphically during one night, while sleeping in the prone and the supine position. They were exposed to white noises of increasing intensities during both rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in each position.