[Sleep disturbances in a case of Morvan's chorea (author's transl)].

Six nocturnal polygraphic recordings were carried out in a young man with fibrillary chorea of Morvan, during the acute period of the disease. Sleep was remarkably fragmented by numerous and brief awakenings but the total sleep time fluctuated between 157 and 312 mins.; the sleep structure was altered by the almost total absence of stages 3,4 and REM. During the day, the subject had one or two periods of sleep (1-2 hours) and complained of being tired. The nocturnal awakenings were correlated by the patient with pain and burning dysaesthesiae of distal distribution that were more severe than those occurring during the day. The patient improved gradually, and five month later both sleep disturbances and other signs of disease had disappeared.