The aim of this study is to describe the time course of night sleep in the first year of life. Forty-eight infants aged between 1 and 54 weeks were polygraphically recorded for 1 night. The central occipital EEG derivation was processed with a lab computer in order to obtain every 30 sec an EEG parameter value. The parameter is based on the joint frequency-amplitude distribution of the EEG and displays fluctuations between 2 extreme levels, high voltage low frequency (HVLF) and low voltage high frequency (LVHF). The range of the fluctuations between HVLF and LVHF increases from the period of 1-6 weeks to the period of 7-14 weeks. A further increase of the parameter range occurs after 24 weeks, which remains restricted to the first half of the night. The recurrence time of LVHF and HVLF episodes (possibly corresponding to quiet sleep paradoxical sleep cycles) is about 56 min and does not change with age in the first year of life.