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Neurobiology of Sleep-Related Movements

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Sleep Neurology

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Abstract

Sleep-related movements comprise a broad spectrum of simple and usually stereotyped movements that are sometimes associated with sleep disturbance (insomnia, sleep fragmentation, and non-restorative sleep). They may represent a physiological variant or a sleep disorder, depending on their intensity, frequency, and associated sleep disruption degree. Sleep-related movements involve usually the lower limbs; they can be idiopathic or associated with other sleep disorders, neurological disease, and medical condition or occur as a consequence of drug use. Several pathophysiological hypotheses have been proposed, but for the majority of these disorders, the neurobiological mechanism is far from being completely understood. Further studies are needed to elucidate the pathophysiology of sleep-related movements in order to better appreciate their clinical significance. This chapter describes the neurobiology of sleep-related movements, namely, periodic limb movements, alternating leg muscle activation, hypnagogic foot tremor, high-frequency myoclonus, excessive fragmentary myoclonus, propriospinal myoclonus at sleep onset, neck myoclonus during sleep, sleep bruxism, sleep-related rhythmic movement disorder, sleep-related leg cramps, and sleep starts. We also present a mechanistic model of the potential role of the spinal central pattern generator for locomotion in generating the leg movements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sleep Disorder Center, Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Michela Figorilli, Monica Puligheddu & Patrizia Congiu

  2. Department of Physiology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    Stefan Clemens

  3. Sleep Research Centre, Oasi Research Institute - IRCCS, Troina, Italy

    Raffaele Ferri

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  1. Michela Figorilli
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  2. Monica Puligheddu
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  3. Patrizia Congiu
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  4. Stefan Clemens
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  5. Raffaele Ferri
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Correspondence to Raffaele Ferri .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sleep Disorders Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Lourdes M. DelRosso

  2. Sleep Research Centre, Oasi Maria SS, TROINA, Enna, Italy

    Raffaele Ferri

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Figorilli, M., Puligheddu, M., Congiu, P., Clemens, S., Ferri, R. (2021). Neurobiology of Sleep-Related Movements. In: DelRosso, L.M., Ferri, R. (eds) Sleep Neurology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54359-4_10

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