Which are the central aspects of infant sleep? Thedynamic of sleep composites across infancy

Abstract

Sleep is ubiquitous during infancy and important for the well-being of both infant and parent. Therefore, there is large interest to characterize infant sleep with reliable tools, for example by means of combining actigraphy with 24-h-diaries. However, it is critical to select the right variables to characterize sleep. With a principal component analysis, we identified 5 underlying sleep composites from 48 commonly used sleep variables: Sleep Night, Sleep Day, Sleep Activity, Sleep Timing and Sleep Variability. These composites accurately reflect the known changes of sleep throughout infancy as Sleep Day (representing naps), Sleep Activity (representing sleep efficiency and consolidation) and Sleep Variability (representing day-to-day stability) decrease across infancy, while Sleep Night (representing nighttime sleep) slightly increases and Sleep Timing becomes earlier with increasing age. Additionally, we uncover interesting dynamics between the sleep composites and demonstrate that infant sleep is not only highly variable between infants but also considerably dynamic within infants across time. Interestingly, Sleep Day is associated with behavioral development and therefore a potential marker for maturation. We recommend the use of sleep composites or of those specific single variables, which are solid representatives of the sleep composites for more reliable research.