Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Porur, Chennai-600116.
Sleep is a universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom. The role of sleep in human beings has been studied with increasing interest over the last 60 years. This has resulted in increased awareness of sleep medicine as a separate entity. This review will focus on some of the aspects of paediatric sleep medicine: The physiology and function of sleep, development and maturity of sleep, parasomnias, behavioural aspects of children's sleep, normal values in polysomnography, spectrum of paediatric sleep disorders and its role in future morbidity of the individuals.
If sleep does not serve an absolutely vital function, then it is the biggest mistake the evolutionary process ever made. - Dr Alan Rechtshaffen, sleep research pioneer.
