Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Density

Electroencephalographic Sleep Recordings and Depression in the Elderly*

“…This was of particular interest since we have recently demonstrated that depressed patients with severe concurrent medical or neurologic disorders may be difficult to differentiate on the basis of clinical examinations alone, but that they show significantly less REM activity (approximately 50 units) and REM density changes during REM sleep than do depressed patients without concurrent medical disease. Although several of the patients in this sample had some evidence of concurrent medical disease, the mean amount of REM activity and REM density did not make them comparable to younger depressed patients with severe concurrent medical disease (18). Therefore, we would expect depressed patients above the age of 60 with severe medical or neurologic disease to show less marked reductions in REM activity as compared to patients of the present study.…”

Psychiatric Disorders and Sleep

“…10–13 Patients with MDD also appear to have alterations in their sleep stages that are evident with polysomnography. These include: shortened latency to the onset of REM sleep (REM latency); 14–22 increased number of eye movements per minute of REM sleep (REM density) 10,15,23–24 ; increased percentage of the night that meets scoring criteria for REM sleep; 10,13,22 a longer duration of the first REM period; 13,25–26 and decreased amount of slow-wave sleep. 10,11,13,16,25,27 …”

Rapid eye movements during paradoxical sleep in patients with cerebrovascular disease

“…and personality factors, and, as consequence, they are considered an individual characteristic 5,6 . Several studies analyzed the variation of rapid eye movements density in mood disorders , [7][8][9] . Gould et al 10 established the association between rapid eye movements and sleep apnea.…”

“…The cerebrovascular patients presented augmented REM density, when we considered both total paradoxical sleep and the first paradoxical period. According King et al 18 patients with neurologic disorders, other than vascular disease do not present altered REM density, compared to normal controls, however, augmented REM density is reported to occur in depressive patients [7][8][9] .…”