AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS (ASD) ARE NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS CHARACTERIZED BY DEFICITS IN SOCIAL INTERACTION AND COMMUNICATION, with restricted interests and repetitive behaviors.1 Parentally reported sleep concerns are common in ASD, with prevalence rates of 44%-83%.2 Even in children with average intelligence, sleep problems in ASD have been reported to be more prevalent and severe than i...

The present study quantitatively analyzes the EEG characteristics during activations (Act) that occur during NREM sleep, and constitute elements of sleep microstructure (i.e. the Cyclic Alternating Pattern). The fractal dimension (FD) and the sample entropy (SampEn) measures were used to study the different sleep stages and the Act that build up the sleep structure. Polysomnographic recordings ...

The present study investigated whether perceived partner responsiveness—the extent to which individuals feel cared for, understood, and validated by their partner—predicted subjective sleep problems and objective (actigraph-based) sleep efficiency through lower anxiety and depression symptoms. A life span sample of 698 married or cohabiting adults (35–86 years old) completed measures of perceiv...

A growing body of evidence has delineated the predominant role of humoral mediators of inflammation in linking sleep with immunity. Nonetheless, characterization of the relationship between complement components with inflammatory functions and objective sleep measures has not been performed. In this study we investigated the relationships between objective measures of sleep and complement compo...

6 LIST OF ORIGINAL PAPERS 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 8 INTRODUCTION 9 AIMS 12 BACKGROUND 13 Sleep 13 A model of sleep regulation 13 Sleep EEG and sleep stages 14 Sleep cycles 15 Sleepiness 16 Definitions 16 Prevalence of sleepiness 17 Sleep deprivation 18 The Circadian rhythm 19 The Sleep debt 20 Shift work and sleepiness 22 The Countermeasures 23 Sleep, naps or breaks as countermeasure 23 Drugs a...

BACKGROUND Obstructive apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep: breathing is interrupted by a physical block to airflow despite effort. The purpose of this study was to test if osteopathy could influence the incidence of obstructive apnea during sleep in infants. METHODS Thirty-four healthy infants (age: 1.5-4.0 months) were recruited and randomized in two ...

PURPOSE This study compared the occurrence rates for and severity ratings of sleep disturbance in patient-family caregiver (FC) dyads. PATIENTS AND METHODS In total, 102 dyads were recruited from two radiation therapy (RT) departments. Patients and their FCs completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the General Sleep Disturbance Scale (GSDS) and wore wrist actigraphs to obtain s...

STUDY OBJECTIVES The majority of adolescent sleep research has utilized self-reported sleep duration and some have based information on a solitary question. Whilst some have claimed to have validated sleep survey data with objective actigraphy measures in adolescents, the statistical approach applied only demonstrates the strength of the association between subjective and objective sleep durati...

BACKGROUND Psoriasis is a long-term immune-mediated inflammatory disorder mainly, but not only, affecting skin, and is associated with significant medical and psychological morbidity. Evidence suggests that sleep is disrupted in psoriasis, however high quality empirical evidence is lacking. Given the importance of sleep for health, characterisation of sleep disruption in psoriasis is an importa...