Infants’ efforts result in the eventual establishment of a sleep cycle. Authentic NREM sleep as part of a normal awake/asleep cycle has been detected in babies as young as 6 months old. But it does take a while to sync up. It is not unusual for an infant to wake up three times a night for the first six months of his life. He may still wake up once or twice a night before his first birthday, and may wake up once a night until his second.
