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Slow Wave Sleep Deficiency Insomnia: A Problem in Thermo‐Downregulation at Sleep Onset
Author(s) -
Sewitch Deborah E.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1987.tb00279.x
Subject(s) - non rapid eye movement sleep , sleep (system call) , insomnia , slow wave sleep , psychology , sleep onset , audiology , k complex , sleep debt , developmental psychology , psychiatry , sleep disorder , electroencephalography , medicine , computer science , operating system
The following review article attempts to develop the argument that a regulated, rapid drop in rectal, core‐body temperature following sleep onset is a necessary prerequisite to the presence of sustained slow wave sleep (NREM Stage 4). Based upon this premise, a theory1 is presented to suggest that the slow wave sleep deficiency so commonly associated with chronic, primary insomnia (Gaillard, 1976, 1978) is the result of a failure in the thermoregulatory system to show a regulated, rapid decrease in body temperature with sleep onset which persists for the first 1–2 hrs into the sleep period.