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The duration of REM sleep episodes in normal sleep
Author(s) -
BELYAVIN ANDREW J.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2869.1992.tb00025.x
Subject(s) - sleep (system call) , slow wave sleep , duration (music) , psychology , non rapid eye movement sleep , k complex , rapid eye movement sleep , sleep stages , poisson process , audiology , anesthesia , eye movement , polysomnography , medicine , electroencephalography , poisson distribution , neuroscience , statistics , mathematics , computer science , operating system , art , literature
SUMMARY The distributions of the durations of the first 3 REM sleep episodes have been analysed using a total of 134 overnight sleep recordings from 10 subjects. From investigation of the length of uninterrupted episodes of stage REM, it is shown that arousals to stage 0/1 could play an important part in the process of REM exit, and that by the middle of the sleep period, these arousals probably occur according to a Poisson process. During the first and second REM episodes a more complex process appears to be at work, which could reflect increased pressure for slow wave sleep. These findings suggest that the duration of a REM episode is determined by a process that has a large stochastic element, which is not necessarily tied to REM entry.