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MINI REVIEW article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1581325
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews in Sleep: 2024View all articles
Maturation of Infant Sleep During the First Six Months of Life: A Mini-Scoping Review
Provisionally accepted- 1Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
- 2Happiest Baby Inc., Los Angeles, United States
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INTRODUCTION: Several foundational aspects of neurodevelopment occur during the early months of infant life, most notably the maturation and consolidation of wake/sleep cycles. Past studies have had difficulty quantifying infant sleep, with most researchers relying on lowresolution caregiver surveys. Data obtained from nightly measurements have not yet been aggregated across studies to clarify developmental trajectories and population norms. This miniscoping review assesses data collected from actigraphy and sleep diaries; the two most common nightly infant sleep measurement techniques.The PubMed database was used to identify studies from 2000-2024 utilizing actigraphy and/or sleep diaries, and which report total night sleep (TNS), longest sleep stretch (LSS), and/or frequency of night wakings (NW) during the first six months of life. Data was then compiled per metric to reveal the extent of inter-and intra-study variability, and curves were fit to highlight developmental trajectories. RESULTS: A total of 35 articles met inclusion criteria (16 studies using actigraphy only, 8 studies using sleep diary only, and 11 studies using both actigraphy and sleep diaries). The sample sizes of these studies ranged from 13 to 320 infants. The majority of studies (N = 28) reported two or fewer age data points. CONCLUSIONS: Aggregation and regression revealed longitudinal trends, but highlighted variability within and between studies, as well as systematic differences between measurement methods. In order to establish reliable benchmarks, future studies must include well defined, objective measures of sleep as well as greater methodological consistency, larger cohorts, more frequent sampling, and clear disclosure of methodological limitations.
Keywords: Sleep, infant sleep, total night sleep, total night awakenings, longest sleep stretch, Actigraphy, sleep diary, Sleep monitoring
Received: 22 Feb 2025; Accepted: 15 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gilchrist, Aylward, Laine and Karp. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christopher M Laine, Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
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