Developmental aspects of sleep and breathing.

The developmental aspects of sleep and breathing are rarely treated as one subject. This report attempts to link the fields of sleep research and developmental pulmonology in a comprehensive description of development and control of sleep and breathing from gestation to adulthood. Unfortunately, much of the investigation in this area is basic physiology and was done some time ago. Although this subject matter need not be updated, some of these references are older; however, this may be new information for the pulmonologist. The second part of this report details the pathophysiologic mechanisms behind the development of sleep-disordered breathing in children and adults. In fact, developmental abnormalities that occur in childhood may recrudesce in adulthood. We conclude with a discussion of the familial and genetic aspects of sleep-disordered breathing and consider the place of sudden infant death syndrome in the spectrum of these disorders.