Evaluation of sleep disturbance in post-traumatic stress disorder

Abstract

The present polysomnographic study compared sleep structures in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with those of age-matched normal controls. Seven patients with relatively acute PTSD and seven normal controls were studied in a sleep laboratory. The post-traumatic patients demonstrated significantly poorer sleep, reduced sleep efficiency, increased numbers of arousals, and a remarkably decreased percentage of slow-wave sleep (SWS), and a decreased percentage of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In two patients who reported having frequent nightmares, REM interruptions of more than 10 min were recognized. Although several previous polysomnographic studies in PTSD subjects have demonstrated disagreements regarding REM sleep and slow-wave sleep, the subjects in those studies were mainly chronic PTSD subjects. Regarding this point, because we investigated relatively acute PTSD subjects, characteristic sleep data might be obtained.