Staging Sleep

Since the 1930s, various schemas have been suggested to describe the different electrophysiologic patterns of human sleep. This article reviews the historical development of sleep staging. The development of the new American Academy of Sleep Medicine manual is reviewed, together with the scientific background underlying the choice of staging criteria. The rules for the different stages of wakefulness, non-rapid eye movement sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep are described, and variations recommended for scoring sleep in children.