A proposal for computer-based sleep/wake analysis.

The task group on Signal Analysis within the EC Concerted Action 'Methodology for the analysis of the sleep-wakefulness continuum' has proposed general guidelines for a computer-based sleep analyser that would not suffer from the most conspicuous limitations of manual standard scoring. The proposal specifies a standard format for digitized polygraphic recordings, a basic structure of the analyser, and a graphical output format for the analysis results. These analysis results include all sleep/wake related signal characteristics, an on/off REM sleep/wake process, and a continuous-scale NREM sleep/wake process, all with a time resolution of 1s. Several locally available sleep analysers were made to comply with these specifications and then applied to standardized digital polygraphic sleep recordings that were circulated among the laboratories. Analysis results were distributed, enabling evaluation of the local algorithms.