What are "sleep patterns" or "sleep stages"?

What are "sleep patterns" or "sleep stages"?

Gary Feldman (Medical Director, Stramski Disorders Center, Miller Children's Hospital ) gives expert video advice on: What are the benefits of sleep for children?; What is a normal sleep pattern?; How much sleep does my child need every day? and more...

When we say "sleep patterns", its synonymous with "sleep stages" because as you sleep through the night you go through these different stages and the pattern that you see is what we call "ultradium rhythm". It's kind of like a map of the different stages that you've gone through in the night and when you do a sleep study, you can measure the brain waves. It gives you this ultradium rhythm, which gives you a pattern and if you look at this ultradium rhythm, or pattern, you can identify what a normal looking sleep pattern for the night is and what is abnormal.