A microstructural study of sleep instability in drug-naive patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls: Sleep spindles, rapid eye movements, and muscle atonia

This study aimed at characterizing the functional stability of sleep in schizophrenia by quantifying dissociated stages of sleep (DSS), and to explore their correlation with psychopathology. The sleep of 10 first-break, drug-naive young adults with schizophrenia and 10 controls was recorded. Four basic DSS patterns were scored: 1) the transitional EEG-mixed intermediate stage (EMIS); 2) Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep without rapid eye movement (RSWR); 3) REM sleep without atonia (RSWA); and 4) non-REM sleep with rapid eye movements. An intermediate sleep (IS) score was calculated by summing EMIS and RSWR scores, and the durations of intra-REM sleep periods IS (IRSPIS) and IS scored “at the expense” of REM sleep (ISERS) were determined. Patients were administered the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) at the time of recording. Proportions of each DSS variables over total sleep time and proportions of IRSPIS and ISERS over REM sleep duration were compared between patients and controls. Correlation coefficients between DSS variables and BPRS total scores were calculated. The proportion of total DSS did not differ between patients and controls. Among DSS subtypes, RSWA was significantly increased in patients while other comparisons showed no significant differences. Significant positive correlations were found between BPRS scores and proportions of DSS, IS, RSWR, IRSPIS and ISERS over total sleep and REM sleep durations. These results demonstrate the functional instability of REM sleep in first-break, drug naive young adults with schizophrenia and unveil a pattern reminiscent of REM sleep behavior disorder. The significant correlation suggests that schizophrenia and REM sleep share common neuronal control mechanisms.