ABSTRACT
The use of animal models in behavioral, biological, and medical research is well accepted as a research strategy to further our understanding of the dynamics and mechanisms of the systems under investigation. To be useful an animal model should (1) be similar to the human in a number of significant parameters, thus establishing an empirical basis for generalizing; (2) have a much shorter life-span so that research findings can be obtained more quickly than with the human; (3) be relatively simple so that basic principles can be readily uncovered; and (4) be amenable to experimental analytical attack. The first criterion is particularly difficult to satisfy for those researchers interested in behavioral development because the relatively narrow behavioral repertoire of newborn animals makes it unlikely that enough parameters can be matched against human infant parameters to allow one to generalize with any degree of comfort. However, there are some behavioral systems that do satisfy these criteria. The system we are concerned with in this chapter involves the behavioral states of sleeping and waking.
