Electroencephalogram during sleep

Electroencephalogram (EEG) sleep studies on the use of antidepressants in depressed patients have not produced clear evidence of the involvement of REM or non-REM sleep in the mechanisms underlying clinical change. Furthermore, the role of the physiological mechanisms of sleep during treatment with antidepressants is still unclear. Further basic sleep research is necessary (Gillin 1983) to interpret the effects of antidepressants on EEG sleep in terms of the physiological processes of sleep. 

Brunner D, Munch M, Biederman K, Huch R, Huch A, Borbely A. Changes in sleep and sleep electroencephalogram during pregnancy. Sleep 1994 17 576-582. 

Formal neurobehavioral evaluation of both children at age 3 years 10 months generated the results summarized in Table 7-1. Further testing of Elizabeth showed profound hypotonia (decreased muscle tone), electrophysiologi-cal evidence of peripheral neuropathy, normal somatosensory evoked potentials, and a normal electroencephalogram recorded during sleep. 

Polysomnography (PSG) is a procedure that measures multiple electro-physiologic parameters simultaneously during sleep (e.g., electroencephalogram, electrooculogram, and electromyogram to characterize sleep and diagnose sleep disorders. 

Until the 1930s sleep was believed to be a simple, passive process. Studies with the electroencephalogram (EEG) first characterized sleep as existing in separate and distinct time patterns. Periodic appearances of rapid eye movements (REM) were subsequently identified during sleep. These appeared to coincide with dreaming. Sleep is now viewed as an active and complex process occurring in stages and cycles. Briefly, there are two kinds of sleep. One is an orthodox sleep, which is a nonrapid eye movement state (NREM). The other is a paradoxical sleep that does involve REM, and is sometimes called active or fast sleep. 

Probably the most important breakthrough in sleep research came in the mid-1930s when it was discovered that the profile of the electroencephalogram (EEG) changed markedly during the sleep-waking cycle (Fig. 22.4). To this day, the EEG is a major... 

Human sleep stages. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) showing electrical activity of the human brain during different stages of sleep. (From Hobson, 1998)... 

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