Infant sleep suit
View Patent ↗An innovative sleeping suit for infants, configured to provide warmth, a contained environment, and positive proprioceptive input, and thereby reduce neurological reflexive twitching or habitual waking patterns prevalent when infants are placed on their backs for sleeping and are not swaddled. The weighting in the suit is believed to reduce the neurological reflexive twitching and provides a swaddling effect to infants helping them to fall asleep and remain sleeping when on their backs. At least a portion of an anterior portion of the suit includes the weighting. The weighting may be accomplished by varying the thickness of the materials and/or quantity of layers of materials used on the anterior portion of the suit. The weighting may be distributed uniformly throughout the suit, the anterior portion of the suit, or can be strategically placed at proprioceptive target points along the anterior portion of the suit.
1. Sleapwear for an infant beyond the age of swaddling, the sleepwear comprising:
a suit having an anterior portion and posterior portion configured to fit over the front and back, respectively, of the infant's body, the suit includes sleeves and leggings, wherein the sleeves and leggings have no coverings for hands and feet of the infant, respectively, to expose the hands and feet for purposes of ventilation and heat dissipation;
wherein the anterior portion of the suit further includes at least first, second, and third layers of material, wherein the first layer of material is an inner most layer of material closest to an infant's body, the third layer of material is an environmental layer, and the second layer of material is located between the first layer of material and the third layer of material on the anterior portion of the suit and at least corresponding to the shoulder area of the infant; and
wherein the second layer comprises a layer of material that is of greater thickness than the first layer of material or the third layer of material, and is configured to provide weighted pressure to at least one proprioceptive target point of an infant's body to reduce neurological reflective twitching or habitual waking patterns of an infant, thereby improving the quality and duration of sleep of the infant when sleeping in a supine position,
wherein the posterior portion of the suit does not include the second layer of material and has less thickness and weight than the anterior portion of the suit.
2. The sleepwear of claim 1 , wherein the second layer of material is comprised of at least one of a synthetic material, beans, seeds, and sand.
3. The sleepwear of claim 1 , wherein the second layer of material is distributed in at least one of the following ways: uniformly along the anterior portion of the suit, and only at specific locations along the anterior portion of the suit corresponding to proprioceptive target point of an infant's body.