“…Eye movements in relation to stage of sleep have been of interest since ASERINSKY and KLEITMAN (1953KLEITMAN ( , 1955 first reported the association between rapid eye movements and a characteristic cyclic variation in the EEG pattern during sleep in adults, and the same general pattern of cycling in infants (1955). Considerable research from many laboratories has served to define the characteristics of the sleep cycle of normal newborns, and the development of these sleep patterns from early prematurity to maturity (DREYFUS-BRISAC, 1962, 1964MONOD and DREYFUS-BRISAC, 1965;MONOD and PAJOT, 1965;PARMELEE et al, 1964PARMELEE et al, , 1967PARMELEE et al, a, 1967b; PAYNE and BACH, 1965;PRECHTL, 1968PRECHTL, , 1969PRECHTL et al, 1968PRECHTL et al, , 1969ROFFWARG, MUZIO andDEMENT, 1964, 1966;STERN et al, 1969;DREYFUS-BRISAC, MONOD, PAR-MELEE, PRECHTL and SCHULTE, 1970). Further, the presence of abnormal sleep patterns has been identified with a variety of disorders of infancy and early childhood, including head trauma (LENARD and PENNIGSTORF, 1970), hypoxia and other hazards of the neonatal period (DREYFUS-BRISAC, 1964;DREYFUS-BRISAC and MONOD, 1970;MONOD, ELIET-FLESCHER and DREYFUS-BRISAC, 1967;PRECHTL, WEINMANN and AKIYAMA, 1969); maternal diabetes (SCHULTE et al, 1969) hypothyroidism (SCHULTZ et al, 1968); mater-nal heroin addiction (SCHULMAN, 1969) and mental retardation (FEINBERG, 1968; PETRE-QUADENS, HARDY and DE LEE, 1971 ; ORNITZ et al, 1969ORNITZ et al, , 1971.…”