Sleep research

Measurement of muscle activity, usually measured by electrodes placed on the skin. The EMG is used in sleep research to aid in the discrimination of sleep stages, and also as part of diagnosis of sleep disorders such as periodic limb movements and restless legs syndrome. 

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... 

Lydic, R. (2001). Pain a bridge linking anesthesiology and sleep research. Sleep 24, 10-12. 

Hoppenbrouwers, M. L. Van den Busche, G. (1987). Mioflazine, a nucleoside transport inhibitor effective as sleep promotor in humans . Abstract, International Symposium Current Trends in Slow Wave Sleep Research, Beerse, Belgium, p. 38. 

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. 

JAIME M. MONTI has won many awards for his research, including the Claude Bernard Award (Clinical Sleep Research) from the Government of France, and the Schering Award for Basic Sleep Research, in Germany. He is a member of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Sleep Research Society (USA), the European Sleep Research Society, and the Argentinian Society of Sleep Medicine. 

College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, USA, which is a major provider of medical education, health-care and research in New York. An internationally recognized sleep researcher, his interests focus on sleep and biological rhythms research. 

Polysomnographic sleep research has demonstrated that besides disturbances of sleep continuity in depression, sleep disturbance is also characterized by a reduction of slow-wave sleep and a disinhibition of REM sleep, with a shortening of REM latency, a prolongation of the first REM period, and increased REM density [62]. Most effective antidepressant agents suppress REM sleep, and depressive symptoms are at least transiently alleviated by manipulations of the sleep-wake cycle, such as sleep deprivation or a phase advance of the sleep period [63]. Thus, there appears to be a bidirectional relationship between sleep, sleep alterations and mood. 

With the advent of a standardized sleep laboratory recording technique and scoring system [Rechtschaffen and Kales 1968] and the development of the computerized sleep electroencephalogram [EEG] analysis method (Borbely et al. 1984 Feinberg et al. 1980 Ktonas 1987 Kupfer et al. 1984 Mendelson et al. 1987a J. E. Shipley et al. 1988 Soldatos 1979], the study of sleep in depression became one of the major areas of sleep research. The sleep recordings of depressed patients were shown to be distinctly different... 

Reynolds CF, Kupfer DJ Sleep research in affective illness state of the art circa... 

Sachar EJ, Heilman L, Roffwarg HP, et al Disrupted 24 hour patterns of cortisol secretion in psychotic depressives. Arch Gen Psychiatry 28 19-24, 1973 Sack RL, Blood ML, Lewy AJ Melatonin administration to night shift workers an update. Sleep Research 24 539, 1995... 

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Sleep Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece... 

Spiegel, R. Sleep and Sleeplessness in AihancedAge, Advances in Sleep Research, Vol. 5. Spectrum, Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York, 1981. 

The brain and its infinite complexity will surely puzzle us for centuries to come. But, as with any other organ in the body, things can go wrong with the brain (and the behavior it controls). Whether it is Alzheimer s or Parkinson s disease, anxiety, depression, or schizophrenia, there is no shortage of possible diseases and disorders of the brain. And sleep, which the brain closely controls and monitors, is also susceptible to going out of whack. In recent decades, with the advancement of sleep research and improved knowledge about sleep, scientists and medical doctors have come to realize that sleep disorders are much more common than anyone previously imagined. In this chapter, we discuss some of the more common sleep disorders, such as insomnia and sleep apnea, as well as more rare disorders like narcolepsy and REM behavior disorder. 

WebSciences International and Sleep Research Society. Basics of Sleep Behavior. Available online at http //www.sleephoniepages.org/sleepsyllabus/ sleephome.html. 

By the time that John Mack published his book Alien Abduction, sleep research was not only clearly established, it was mature enough to provide powerful, credible alternative explanations for many of the fascinating conscious experiences that occur on the margins of sleep. In fact, John Mack is also the author of an earlier book, entitled Children s Dreams and Nightmares, which, even as it expresses the author s psychoanalytic preferences, also reflects his awareness of modern sleep and dream science. 

Prior to Solms s work, sleep researchers did not suspect this region to be of crucial importance to dreaming even though, as Solms points out, there was evidence in the literature on the effects of deep bifrontal leucotomy, an operation introduced in the 1930s to relieve intractable cases of schizophrenia and severe obsessive-compulsive disorders. According to Solms, a loss of dreaming was sometimes reported, in addition to such side effects as motoric inertia, bland docility, and emotional passivity. 

It is important to point out that basic sleep researchers make mistakes that are every bit as egregious and every bit as persistent as those of our clinical colleagues. From 1969 to 1975, it was widely held that serotonin promoted sleep. If that were true, then the SSRIs would be sedatives, not sleep saboteurs In fact, there is paradoxical sedation in a very high percentage of users, but this effect is not easily attributable to the enhancement of serotonergic efficacy. So strong was the serotonin hypothesis that it worked its way into textbooks, where it lived for fifteen years after it had been clearly shown that serotonin was actually a sleep inhibitor and, reciprocally, a wake-state enhancer. 

The ideas behind this question are not new and the answers are not yet clear, probably because of the complexity of drug effects and the intensely interactive nature of the intrinsic neuromodulatory systems. We should remember that from the earliest days of modern sleep research in the 1960s, studies showed that REM sleep parameters were normal in schizophrenia. This argued against the idea that increased REM pressure underlay schizophrenic psychosis and condemned the hypothesis to an early and perhaps premature oblivion. 

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research s Department of Behavioral Biology has developed a field-deployable version of a commercial Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) that has been widely used in sleep research. The software runs on handheld PDAs running the Palm Operating System (Palm OS). It is modeled after the simple reaction time task of Wilkinson and Houghton,57 as modified by Dinges and Powell.58 The Palm OS version incorporates additional stimulus, feedback, control, and data options developed by Dr. Thome. In laboratory studies, performance on the PDA task has been shown to be sensitive to time-on-task fatigue effects, sleep deprivation, and circadian variation.18 Field studies have utilized the PVT to measure the efficacy of caffeine gum as a sleep loss countermeasure. 

Rowland L, Thome D, Balkin T, Sing H, Wesensten N, Redmond D, Johnson D, Anderson, A, Cephus R, Hall S, Thomas M, Powell JW, Dinges DF, Belenky G. The effects of four different sleep-wake cycles on psychomotor vigilance. Sleep Research 1997 26 627. 

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