Sleep and Heart Rate Variations in Premature and Full Term Babies

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Abstract
Heart rate was studied in 47 newborns babies during 67 polygraphic recordings by histograms and sequential curves of the length of 600 consecutive R-R-intervals selected during sleep stages lasting at least 5 minutes. In normal babies: (14 babies born at Gestational Age, G. A., 37 weeks, 6 babies born between 28 and 36 weeks). Before 37 weeks of G. A., the sequential curves show periodic variations of heart rate (including 15 to 70 beats) present both in active and quiet sleep. After 37 weeks of G. A., slow periodic variations are still present in active sleep but superimposed by fast variations synchronous to respiratory cycles. Fast variations are prevailing in quiet sleep. In pathological babies: Small variability is favoured by prematurity, young age at recording, and hypercapnia but can be very transient. Pronounced variations similar to those of normal babies are observed in ⅔ of the cases with or without respiratory assistance, with or without PEEP. 1 This work has been supported by Inserm