Investigating the impact of sleep stage of the patients at which they wake up on the stanford sleepiness scale after polysomnography

Abstract

Objective: Sleep inertia is a period that cognitive performance and wakefulness are lower in the transition phase from sleep to wakefulness than during the daytime. The sleep inertia period is reported to extend from 1 minute to 4 hours. In our study, we aimed to investigate the impact of the sleep stage of the patients at which they wake up on the sleep inertia and the Stanford sleepiness scale (SSS) as well.Materials and Methods: Patients who applied to Bursa Uludag University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology between the dates of March and September 2016, with such complaints about sleep disorders and with indications for admission to polysomnography were involved in the study. The patients were informed and their consent was received after PSG to complete the SSS.Results: One hundred patients were involved in the study. There were 55 patients waken up in the 2nd stage of NREM, 35 patients in REM sleep, and 10 patients in the 3rd stage of NREM. The points given by the patients and the number of these patients were as follows: 1-3 points for 37, 28, and 8 patients; 4 points for 1, 1, and 1 patient; and 5-7 points for 17, 6, and 1 patient, respectively.Conclusion: The arousal threshold differs in REM sleep and at the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stages of NREM. The impact of waking up at any stages on the sleep inertia and/or the performance of the patients during the day is not known. For this reason, revealing the impacts of waking up at different sleep stages on the SSS was aimed in this study.