Transcranial magnetic stimulation in sleep fragmentation: a model to better understand sleep disorders

SF produces disruption of nocturnal sleep and increases daytime sleepiness. Confirmatory features of this clinical behaviour could be that in FC we observed a significant increase in SSS and in MT. SF was unable to modify cortical inhibition\excitability and\or to influence plasticity-related parameters. These results seem inconsistent with some of TMS alterations observed in sleep deprivation (SD) and restless legs syndrome (RLS). We suggest that SD and SF represent different phenomena that can depend on various networks acting on motor cortex. We speculate that alterations in cortical excitability found in RLS are intrinsically related to the underlying disease itself and are not instead directly associated with the SF present in RLS.