A SCORING SYSTEM FOR STATES OF SLEEP AND WAKEFULNESS IN TERM AND PRETERM INFANTS

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 18  (1) , 58-62
Abstract
A system was designed and validated for determining the state of sleep or wakefulness in both term and preterm infants. The system is based on independent assessments of behavioral and EEG patterns. Overall agreement between observers in coding individual behavioral patterns was 77.6%. Agreement between observers in coding EEG patterns was 87.4%. Designation of an infant''s state is made by combining concurrent behavioral and EEG scores into a single 2-number code. The distribution of sleep state for 8 infants > 36 wk postconceptional age (PcA) was the following: quiet sleep (QS), 30.4%; active sleep (AS), 50.0%: indeterminate sleep (IS), 11.4% and wakefulness (W), 7.5%. The distribution of sleep state for 15 infants < 36 wk PCA was as follows: QS, 18.9%; AS, 52.9%; IS, 16.4%; and W, 10.5%. Evidently, it is useful for relating sleep state to physiologic variables during neonatal experimental studies.