Visual assessment of selected high amplitude frontopolar slow waves of sleep: differences between healthy subjects and apnea patients.

Slow wave sequences with individually defined amplitude criterion were selected manually from frontopolar sleep EEG of eight healthy control subjects and eight patients with sleep apnea syndrome. Healthy subjects had clearly more time occupied by slow wave sequences in all night sleep. Closer examination revealed that the difference in the amount of slow wave sequence time between the groups was statistically significant only in the first NREM sleep episode. In other words, healthy subjects had more time with slow wave sequences in the first NREM sleep episode, where sleep pressure is supposed to be highest. The lower amount of slow wave sequences in the apnea patients might reflect the fragmented sleep of the patients, inhibiting cortical synchronization.