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Pattern of “sleep spindles” in obstructive sleep apnea patients

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Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a very serious and multifactorial sleep disorder that is closely related to the disruption of sleep homeostasis. It is known that such sleep encephalographic (EEG) phenomenon as sleep spindles (SSs) supports sleep stability and may display a sleep protective function. Thus, it is of particular interest to assess the SS pattern in OSA patients, which is the aim of the present research. We investigated whether SS activity could be altered in patients with moderate degree of OSA compared with non-OSA subjects. Twenty-nine meddle-aged OSA patients (26 male and 3 female) and 26 controls underwent full-night polysomnography (PSG). SSs were automatically detected during stage 2 (N2) of non-rapid eye movements. The SS activity characteristics involved total number, mean density, mean maximum amplitude, and mean frequency. All differences were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05. We noted a significant decrease in the density and number of central SSs in patients with OSA compared to controls; however, the amplitude is significantly higher in OSA subjects. To summarize, our results show that OSA leads to significant disruption of SS density, reduction of their number, and frequency in N2 sleep stages. These findings can be evidence of the extinction of a brain protective mechanism against exciting stimuli during apnea episodes in OSA patients with a long duration of sleep disturbances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scientific Centre for Family Health and Human Reproduction Problems, 16, Timiryazev, 664003, Irkutsk, Russia

    I. Madaeva, O. Berdina, E. Titova & L. Kolesnikova

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  1. I. Madaeva
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  2. O. Berdina
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  3. E. Titova
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  4. L. Kolesnikova
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by IM, OB, ET, and LK. The first draft of the manuscript was written by IM, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to I. Madaeva.

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Madaeva, I., Berdina, O., Titova, E. et al. Pattern of “sleep spindles” in obstructive sleep apnea patients. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-023-01049-3

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