Abstract: In mammals, the adult sleep states of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep have distinctive electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography, and behavioral correlates. These classical suites of characteristics are not present when periods of rest and activity are first manifest in the fetus. The emergence of adult sleep states goes through three stages in mammals: dissociation, concordance, and maturation. One controversy in this field is whether or not in the dissociation stage periods of quiescence (behavioral quiet sleep (BQS)) are progenitors of NREM sleep and periods of quiescence with muscle twitches (behavioral active sleep (BAS)) are progenitors of REM sleep. In this article, data are reviewed which show that BAS does not involve the neurochemical substrates that are responsible for REM sleep, and that when slow waves (the hallmark of NREM sleep) first appear in the EEG, they are distributed both in BAS and in BQS. These facts suggest that both sleep states emerge from an undifferentiated condition at approximately the same time that the EEG begins to differentiate, and it is possible that NREM sleep appears before REM sleep and matures more rapidly.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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