Sleep patterns in young adults: an EEG study

Abstract

1. 1. EEG sleep stages do not appear in any consistent temporal sequence from night to night in a given subject nor in a group of subjects. 2. 2. The typical young adult in our study spent an individually characteristics relative amount of time in each sleep stage each night. 3. 3. The length of stages was short, usually less than 10 min, with the exception of stage 1-REM which ranged up to 39 min in length. Our subjects characteristically changed stages fewer times on successive nights. The number of sleep stage changes differed among subjects. 4. 4. The stage change was usually smooth, moving from one stage to the next when sleep was deepening, but less smooth, often “jumping”.