Percentile curves provide valuable information on developmental course and age-specific variability of sleep duration for the health care professional who deals with sleep problems in pediatric practice.

Bed sharing and nocturnal wakings are common during early childhood. Developmental changes in separation-attachment processes, cognitive capabilities to develop self-recognition and nighttime fears, and motor locomotion may contribute to the particular age trend of night wakings and bed sharing during early childhood.

Sleep behaviour does not differ between preterm and term children from birth to age 10 y, indicating that prematurity or neonatal intensive care experience does not significantly affect sleep in the first 10 y of life.

No abstract