EEG Sleep Patterns After High Cervical Lesions in Man

Abstract

EVOLUTION of sleep patterns as a primary component of sleep-wakefulness cycles has received much attention in recent years, from both phylogenetic¹and ontogenetic viewpoints.²It has become clear that in the premature human infant there is a marked preponderance of "activated" sleep (rhombencephalic, or rapid eye movement [REM] sleep).^3,4This phase of sleep in the adult has been strongly associated with dreaming,⁵and decreased REM sleep in the early postnatal period is associated with appearance of more finely graded sleep patterns which are thereafter separable into light, intermediate, deep, and dream phases.⁶ The role that such factors as somatic sensory influxes might play in maintenance of normal sleep patterns has not been extensively investigated. At a behavioral level, studied by Berger⁷in our laboratory have indicated a relationship between conditioned eye movements in the waking state and the amount of eye movements in