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A new interesting article has been published in Sleep. 2019 Jul 22. pii: zsz163. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsz163. and titled:

Microsleep episodes in the borderland between wakefulness and sleep.

Authors of this article are:

Hertig-Godeschalk A, Skorucak J, Malafeev A, Achermann P, Mathis J, Schreier DR.

A summary of the article is shown below:

STUDY OBJECTIVES: The wake-sleep transition zone represents a poorly defined borderland, containing e.g. microsleep episodes (MSEs) which are of potential relevance for diagnosis and may have consequences while driving. Yet, the scoring guidelines of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) completely neglect it. We aimed to explore the borderland between wakefulness and sleep by developing the Bern continuous and high-resolution wake-sleep (BERN) criteria for visual scoring, focusing on MSEs visible in the electroencephalogram (EEG), as opposed to purely behaviour- or performance-defined MSEs.METHODS: Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT) trials of 76 randomly selected patients were retrospectively scored according to both the AASM and the newly developed BERN scoring criteria. The visual scoring was compared with spectral analysis of the EEG. The quantitative EEG analysis enabled a reliable objectification of the visually scored MSEs. For less distinct episodes within the borderland, either ambiguous or no quantitative patterns were found.RESULTS: As expected, the latency to the first MSE was significantly shorter in comparison to the sleep latency, defined according to the AASM criteria. In certain cases, a large difference between the two latencies was observed, and a substantial number of MSEs occurred between the first MSE and sleep. Series of MSEs were more frequent in patients with shorter sleep latencies, while isolated MSEs were more frequent in patients who did not reach sleep.CONCLUSION: The BERN criteria extend the AASM criteria and represent a valuable tool for in-depth analysis of the wake-sleep transition zone, particularly important in the MWT.© Sleep Research Society 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: AASM scoring criteria;Microsleep;electroencephalography;maintenance of wakefulness test;sleep;sleepiness;wake-sleep transition zone;wakefulness.

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