Infant Sleep Predicts Attention Regulation and Behavior Problems at 3–4 Years of Age. DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, 40(3), 122–137 "We don't know what the underlying causes are for the lower sleep quality and later behavior regulation problems in these children," said Prof. Sadeh. How could Professor Sadeh say that? I was taught as a medical student, 54 years ago, that a sign of brain damage in the new born was disturbance of habituation. Prof. Hepper [Belfast] has shown that intrautero exposure to alcohol leads to disturbances of habituation in the fasd infant. Disturbance of habituation contributes to disturbed sleep patterns of infants, later diagnosed with the neurodevelopomental afflictions of FASD; as parents of such infants and children well know. Poor infant sleep is not the cause of neurological deficiencies such as impaired executive functioning rather, with those other neurological deficiencies, it is the consequence of ubiquitous impairment of brain development; the most common cause being prenatal alcohol exposure. Barry Stanley 12th. Oct. 2015.