Posted by Jakeman on May 26, 2005, at 14:03:52
In reply to Re: If all effective AD's supress REM sleep....., posted by university on May 16, 2005, at 0:11:33
My study showed 3.9% of sleep time in REM., 6.6% in stage 1, 89.5 in stage 2, 0% in stage 3 and 4.
I had 49 "arousals" and 14 awakenings; 0 apneas, 29 hypopneas, Apnea-Hypopnea Index 10.5. Mean oxygen 93%, minimum 83%. My total sleep time was only 166 minutes. The diagnosis is obstructive sleep apnea, hypoxemia, absence of slow-wave sleep, poor sleep efficiency. They want me to do another sleep test witha a nasal CPAP.It took me 52 minutes to go to sleep and I slept only 2 1/2 hours, with medications-- Elavil and Lunesta. The report did not address this, but it appears to me that I have the twin devils of apnea AND insomnia. I'll probably try the CPAP device to see if it helps... but I've can't imagine sleeping regularly with this contraption because I'm such a light sleeper.
best- J
> i just got my polysomnography results back; the results show that i spend 95% of my sleep time (8.1 hours) in stages 1 and 3. The other 5% was in REM, and my sleep was very disturbed during that time. Also, the REM sleep occured just before waking up in the morning! I had zero stage 3 or 4 sleep.
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> I've been reading a lot about REM sleep and depression, and, it seems to me, that the there isn't a consensus about the correlations. For example, some experiments seem to indicate that REM sleep worsens depression because it's the only stage of sleep wherein our brains are as active as when awake--and they (our brains) are mulling over the same, depressive thoughts...etc. And since most ADs inhibit REM sleep--especially MAOs--some think that that also points toward REM sleep being detrimental to a depressed person. However, other ADs that work actually increase REM sleep. And another group found that REM sleep was the only time that depressed (hence, "helpless") monkeys could excercise "search" behavior, and thus improve their perceived helplessness during conciousness.
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> Yet another study shows that most depressed inpatients and outpatients have short "REM latentcy" periods; they go into their first period of REM shortly after falling asleep (normally, about 90 minutes pass before first REM). These clinicians think this could be a "marker" for depression--even in never/nondepressed people.
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> I have NO idea. Who knows? Some think that we "process" thoughts, emotions, information, memories, etc. during REM sleep. But if we're processing these things *negatively,* as depressives tend to do while conscious, it makes sense that REM sleep might be detrimental. But who knows how we're "dealing" with stuff in dreams anyhow?
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> It's all very fascinating to me. I'd love to be hooked up to all that stuff (EEG, EKG, etc.) every night for a period of time--then compare the polysom. results with a daily mood/meds/events journal! But at $3,000 a test, I don't think Blue Cross will indulge me :(
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> Incidentally, I have read in many places that REM sleep facilitates memory consolidation and other cerebral events that would tend to enhance one's memory/cognition. This could explain why my memory--especially serial memory (e.g., 'phone numbers)--has become so poor over the 12 years I've been on Prozac. But another study I read, which was roundly accepted (by medical orthodoxy, FWIW), indicated that REM sleep has nothing to do with memory consolidation, etc.
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> Maybe, a long time from now, people with psych. disorders will look back on our times and feel the sympathy we feel for those who lived in earlier centuries--who endured excorsisms, skull-drilling, and other, barbarous "treatments" for depression... :/
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poster:Jakeman
thread:490873
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050521/msgs/503204.html