Investigators: Jane Pillow, Natasha Sorensen
External collaborators: Dr Peter Mark (University of Western Australia), Prof Shane Maloney (University of Western Australia)
Premature infants often spend the first weeks and/or months of their life in the artificial environment of a hospital nursery, which often has constant light and noise levels. This project aims to understand how infants develop their circadian rhythms and how the development of these rhythms is impacted by premature birth and hospitalisation. Infants were monitored at intervals from birth to 3 months of age with recordings of their breathing, heart rate and temperature, as well as sleep-wake activity, and saliva and cheek swabs to determine changes in their circadian hormone and gene expression levels.