REM SLEEP AND NREM SLEEP IN NARCOLEPSY AND HYPERSOMNIA

Seventy patients suffering from narcolepsy and eighteen patients with hypersomnia were examined by polygraphic methods. A total of 115 recordings were made. In patients suffering exclusively from narcoleptic attacks only signs of NREM sleep were found. The findings were similar, with one single exception, in patients with hypersomnia. In the group of patients suffering from narcolepsy with cataplexy or sleep paralysis, sleep onset REM periods were noticed in 47.1% of all records. Signs of NREM sleep were found in 91.4% of all records of these patients. In the authors'opinion independent narcolepsy, as well as all kinds of hypersomnia, is due to a disturbance of the NREM sleep system. In narcolepsy accompanied by cataplexy or sleep paralysis there is always a disturbance of the REM sleep system which is also associated, in the majority of cases, with a disturbance of the NREM sleep system. The authors consider cataplexy, sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations as dissociated manifestations of REM sleep. Narcoleptic attacks are of two kinds, those due to REM sleep and those due to NREM sleep. © 1969.