Body & Brain
Sleeping babies are growing babies, plus the body-brain connection and women’s circadian clocks in this week’s news
By Science News
Long naps make longer babies
Sleeping babies are growing babies. An increase in the number of naps or the total hours of sleep a baby gets each day usually coincides with a growth spurt in body length, a study in the May 1
Sleep
shows. Parents of 23 infants kept daily sleep diaries and their babies were measured often. Growth spurts followed close on the heels of increased sleep, usually within a day or two, researchers Michelle Lampl of Emory University in Atlanta and Michael L. Johnson of the University of Virginia Health System found. —