BACKGROUND In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) periods of hypopnoea occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but the mechanisms involved are not clear. METHODS Ten patients with stable COPD were studied during nocturnal sleep. Detailed measurements were made of surface electromyographic (EMG) activity of several respiratory muscle groups and the accompanying ches...

Placental and marsupial mammals exist in three states of consciousness: waking, non-REM sleep, and REM sleep. We now report that the echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus, a representative of the earliest branch of mammalian evolution (the monotremes), does not have the pattern of neuronal activity of either of the sleep states seen in nonmonotreme mammals. Echidna sleep was characterized by increased...

BACKGROUND A study of the pattern of Sleep/Wake disturbance in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). METHODS Sleep diaries and prolonged actigraphy were used to record the activity, sleep and wake of 13 patients with a clinical diagnosis of FTD. These were compared with diaries and actigraphy from normal age/sex matched controls and also to a population with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). RESU...

BACKGROUND Sleep disturbances is a distressing and disabling condition that affects many people, and can affect on quality of work and education of medical students and residents. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in medical students and residents. METHODS A representative sample of medical students and residents of Iran University of medical stude...

Breathing disturbances during snoring have been quantified by face mask pneumotachography and oesophageal catheters. In order to nonobtrusively investigate respiratory mechanics during nonapnoeic snoring in relation to sleep disturbances, we employed calibrated respiratory inductive plethysmography (RIP). In 10 snorers, RIP recordings were studied during nonapnoeic snoring without arousals in n...

Narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) is a neurological sleep disorder characterized by very low or undetectable concentration of hypocretin-1 in the cerebrospinal fluid. It has been recently found that patients with NC have disturbed circadian pattern of blood pressure, with more frequent non-dipping, compared to healthy controls. It has been hypothesized that lack of hypocretin may lead to increase ...

The pattern of monocular/unihemispheric sleep (Mo-Un sleep) was studied behaviourally in male and female chicks after early post-hatching changes of the imprinting object. Chicks were reared with an imprinting object on day 1 post-hatching which was removed or changed on day 2. On day 1, time spent in binocular sleep (both eyes closed) was similar in male and female chicks, though the number of...

Sleep measurement is based on conventional rules, which simplify the complex architecture of this mandatory phsyiological activity. The dynamic development of sleep shows a regular cyclic nature, which is reflected also in the microstructural organization of phasic EEG events. In NREM sleep, arousals rarely appear in isolation but are most commonly arranged in sequences recognized as the cyclic...

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by sleepiness and episodes of cataplexy. Cataplexy is an abrupt loss of muscle tone, most often triggered by sudden, strong emotions. A subset of cells in the medial medulla of the narcoleptic dog discharged at high rates only in cataplexy and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. These cells were noncholinergic and were localized to ventromedial an...

OBJECTIVE To assess the features of sleep in preschoolers with ADHD by means of questionnaire and actigraphy. METHOD Twenty-five ADHD and 21 age-matched typically developing (TD) preschool children underwent the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for ages 1½ to 5 and Pre-School-Age Psychiatric Assessment interview. Sleep was assessed by means of a modified Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children an...