By age 1, REM sleep typically decreases to about 4 hours per day.
By age 1, REM sleep drops to about 4 hours per day (c). Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is characterized by eye movements, increased brain activity, and is associated with dreaming. As we move through different stages of development, our sleep patterns change significantly. While a newborn may need up to 16-18 hours of sleep including higher proportions of REM sleep, as they grow the need for sleep decreases, and the composition of different sleep stages also changes. By the time a child reaches one year of age, their REM sleep declines, amounting to just a fraction of their total sleep time.