Recording, Automated Detection, and Quantification of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Patterns During Human REM Sleep

Abstract

Rapid eye movement (REM) patterns during sleep stage 1-REM have attracted the attention of the scientific and clinical community ever since the re-discovery of REM sleep by Aserinsky and Kleitman in 1953. Besides being the sign for the REM sleep stage, REM patterns have been associated with the imagery of dreams (Dement and Kleitman 1957; Roffwarg et al. 1962) as well as with the general psychophysiological state of the human organism. The arrangement of REMs into bursts, and the gradual, on the average, increase in the number of REMs and in the number of REM bursts during the successive REM sleep periods through the night are considered signs of normalcy, while poorly defined REM bursts and lack of REM profusion may be indicative of a pathological process (Barros-Ferreira and Bedoret 1972; Salzarulo et al. 1973; Benoit et al. 1974). Sleep REM density measures (number of REMs/unit of time) have been utilized for diagnosis and prognosis purposes. For example, they have been used to distinguish normals from schizophrenics (McPartland et al. 1974), as well as medical-depressive syndromes from primary affective disorders (Foster et al. 1976), to quantify effects of psychotropic drugs on the central nervous system (Okuma et al. 1975), to indicate recovery of cerebral function (Feinberg 1969), and to assess developmental changes (Petre-Quadens and De Lee 1974).