Newborns sleep an average of 16 hours per day, but even at this age, some babies sleep a lot more (20 hours) while others sleep a lot less (12). Newborns' sleep is not affected by the alternation of day and night. Instead, it is broken up into periods of 3 or 4 hours, and the main thing that wakes newborns up is the need to nurse. Infants spend about half of their sleeping lives in REM sleep–double the proportion for adults.This large amount of REM sleep in infants is believed to assist the development of their central nervous systems. Scientists know that neural activity helps developing synapses to find their targets. This neural activity is very intense during REM sleep, so the frequent episodes of REM sleep in babies may facilitate the activation of neural pathways and the establishment of the appropriate synaptic connections between them. http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_11/a_11_p/a_11_p_cyc/a_11_p_cyc.html
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