Sleep Med Psychophysiol.  2008 Jun;15(1):33-38.

Spectral Analysis of REM Sleep EEG in Narcolepsy and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

• Kim HI
• Jeong DU
• Park KS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: It has been proposed that narcolepsy and REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) have overlapped symptom profile and pathophysiology. This study was aimed at measuring and comparing changes in EEG frequency band of REM sleep in narcolepsy and RBD, applying EEG spectral analysis method.
METHODS
Nine patients diagnosed as narcolepsy and the same number of RBD patients were studied. Spectral analysis of the REM sleep EEG was performed in each patient on 9 epochs selected evenly from the first, second, and third REM periods. Then, we compared frequency band percentages of REM sleep EEG in narcolepsy and RBD.
RESULTS
Narcolepsy patients had significantly higher delta frequency ratio than RBD ones (p=0.00). In alpha and beta2 frequency bands, RBD patients showed higher percentage than narcolepsy ones. Slow wave sleep was more prevalent in narcolepsy patients. But, no difference of REM sleep percentage was found between the two groups (p=0.93).
CONCLUSION
Higher delta frequency ratio in REM sleep of narcolepsy patients than RBD ones reflects that sleep-promoting mechanism is more dominant in narcolepsy than in RBD.

Keyword

Narcolepsy; REM sleep behavior disorder; EEG spectral analysis

MeSH Terms

Electroencephalography
Humans
Narcolepsy
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
Sleep, REM