Human sleep EEG under the influence of pulsed radio frequency electromagnetic fields. Results from polysomnographies using submaximal high power flux densities.

Former exploratory investigations of sleep alterations due to global system for mobile communications (GSM) signals have shown a hypnotic and REM-suppressive effect under field exposure. This effect was observed in a first study using a power flux density of 0.5 W/m(2), and the same trend occurred in a second study with a power flux density of 0.2 W/m(2). For the present study, we applied a submaximal power flux density of 50 W/m(2). To investigate putative effects of radio frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of cellular GSM phones on human sleep EEG pattern, all-night polysomnographies of 20 healthy male subjects both with and without exposure to a circularly polarized EMF (900 MHz, pulsed with a frequency of 217 Hz, pulse duration 577 microseconds) were recorded. The results showed no significant effect of the field application either on conventional sleep parameters or on sleep EEG power spectra. Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.