Sleep latencies in human subjects: Age, prior wakefulness, and reliability

Abstract

The latencies of sleep onset defined by EEG criteria were examined for seven age groups ranging from 21–31 months to 60–69 years. There was a decline in mean latencies with age except for the 60- to 69-year-old group. Forty percent of the latencies were less than 5 min in the 16- to 69-year age range. Latencies were positively related to prior wakefulness. Night-to-night latencies showed a low inter-S reliability. © 1971, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.