Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The History of Polysomnography: Tool of Scientific Discovery

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sleep Medicine

Abstract

Polysomnography (PSG) refers to the objective scientific method developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century for studying sleep. Owing its roots to electroencephalography and other electrophysiological recording techniques, PSG rapidly evolved from its role for scientific inquiry to clinical applications. As a technique for describing sleep psychophysiology, it remains unparalleled. Laboratory sleep studies revealed many underlying pathophysiologies that illuminated the path to contemporary sleep medicine. Beginning in the 1980s, PSG became the chief diagnostic method for recognizing sleep-related breathing disorders. Finally, PSG is an odd term combining Greek and Latin elements. Why multichannel electrophysiological sleep recordings were not named polyhypnography or multisomnography is not known. Regardless of its name, PSG captured the imaginations of researchers and remains clinically relevant for evaluating sleep disorders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Berger H. Ueber das Electroenkephalogramm des Menschen. J Psychol Neurol. 1930;40:160–179.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Adrian ED, Matthews BHC. Berger rhythm: potential changes from the occipital lobes in man. Brain 1934;57:355–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Titchener EB. Experimental psychology, a manual of laboratory practice I: quantitative experiments, part II. Instructor’s manual. New York: Macmillan; 1918. p. 172–176.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gibbs FA, Gibbs EL. Atlas of electroencephalography. I. Methodology and normal controls. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley; 1950.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Conant J. Tuxedo park. New York: Simon and Schuster; 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Loomis AL, Harvey N, Hobart GA: Cerebral states during sleep, as studied by human brain potentials. J Exp Psychol. 1937;21:127–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Aserinsky E, Kleitman N. Regularly occurring periods of eye motility, and concomitant phenomena, during sleep. Science 1953;118:273–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Kleitman N. Sleep and wakefulness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jouvet M, Michel F. Sur les voies nerveuses responsables de l’activité rapide au cours du sommeil physiologique chez le chat (phase paradoxale). CR Soc Biol. 1960;154:995–8.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Freud S: The interpretation of dreams. New York: Random House; 1950.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Dement W, Kleitman N. Cyclic variation in EEG during sleep and their relation to eye movements, body motility, and dreaming. Clin Neurophysiol. 1957;9:673–90.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Rechtschaffen A, Kales A. A manual of standardized terminology, techniques and scoring system for sleep stages in human subjects. NIH Publication No. 204. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Carskadon MA, Dement WC. Sleep tendency: an objective measure of sleep loss. Sleep Res. 1977;6: 200.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Richardson GS, Carskadon MA, Flagg W, van den Hoed J, Dement WC, Mitler MM. Excessive daytime sleepiness in man: multiple sleep latency measurement in narcoleptic and control subjects. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1978;45:621–7.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Carskadon MA, Dement WC. Effects of total sleep loss on sleep tendency. Percept Motor Skills. 1979;48:495–506.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Carskadon MA, Dement WC. Cumulative effects of sleep restriction on daytime sleepiness. Psychophysiology 1981;18:107–13.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Carskadon MA, Dement WC, Mitler MM, Roth T, Westbrook P, Keenan S. Guidelines for the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT): a standard measure of sleepiness. Sleep 1986;9:519–24.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Standards of practice committee of the American academy of sleep medicine. Practice parameters for clinical use of the multiple sleep latency test and the maintenance of wakefulness test. Sleep 2005;28:113–121.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Mitler MM, Gujavarty KS, Browman CP. Maintenance of wakefulness test: a polysomnographic technique for evaluating treatment efficacy in patients with excessive somnolence. Electroenceph clin Neurophysiol. 1982;53:658–61.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Browman CP, Gujavarty KS, Sampson MG, Mitler MM. REM sleep episodes during the maintenance of wakefulness test in patients with sleep apnea syndrome and patients with narcolepsy. Sleep 1983;6(1):23–8.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Doghramji K, Mitler MM, Sangal RB, Shapiro C, Taylor S, et al. A normative study of the maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT). Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1997;103(5):554–62.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Williams RL, Karacan I, Hursch CJ. EEG of human sleep: clinical applications: New York: Wiley; 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rechtschaffen A, Wolpert EA, Dement WC, Mitchell SA, Fisher C. Nocturnal sleep of narcoleptics. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1963;15:599–609.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Reynolds CF, Kupfer DJ. Sleep research in affective illness: state of the art circa 1987. Sleep 1987;10:199–215.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Karacan I, Salis P, Williams RL. The role of the sleep laboratory in diagnosis and treatment of impotence. In: Williams RL, Karacan I, edtors. Sleep disorders: diagnosis and treatment. New York: John Wiley and Son; 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Guilleminault C, Dement WC. Sleep apnea syndromes (The Kroc Foundation series: v 11). New York: AR Liss; 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Schenck CH, Bundlie SR, Ettinger MG, Mahowald MW chronic behavioral disorders of human REM sleep: a new category of parasomnia. Sleep 1986;9:293–308.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Littner M, Hirshkowitz M, Kramer M, Kapen S, Anderson WM, Bailey D, Berry RB, Davila D, Johnson S, Kushida C, Loube DI, Wise M, Woodson BT. Practice parameters for using polysomnography to evaluate insomnia: an update. An American Academy of Sleep Medicine report. Sleep 2003:26(6):754–60.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Hirshkowitz M, Thornby JI, Karacan I. Sleep pharmacology and automated EEG analysis. Psychiatr Ann. 1979;9:510–20.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Guilleminault C, editor. Sleeping and waking disorders: indications and techniques. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley; 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Bornstein SK. Respiratory monitoring during sleep: polysomnography. In: Guilleminault C, editor. Sleeping and waking disorders: indications and techniques. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley; 1982. pp. 183–212.

    Google Scholar 

  32. The report of an American academy of sleep medicine task force. Sleep-related breathing disorders in adults: recommendations for syndrome definition and measurement techniques in clinical research. Sleep 1999;22(5):667–89.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Coleman RM: Periodic movements in sleep (nocturnal myoclonus) and restless legs syndrome. In: Guilleminault C, editor. Sleeping and waking disorders: indications and techniques. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley; 1982. pp. 267–295.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Carskadon MA, Dement WC, Mitler MM, Roth T, Westbrook PR, Keenan S. Guidelines for the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT): A standard measure of sleepiness. Sleep 1986;9:519–24.

    Google Scholar 

  35. ASDA Report. Bonnet M, Carley D, Carskadon M, Easton P, Guilleminault C, Harper R, Hayes B, Hirshkowitz M, Ktonas P, Keenan S, Pressman M, Roehrs T, Smith J, Walsh J, Weber S, Westbrook P, Jordan B. EEG arousals: scoring rules and examples. Sleep 1992;15:173–84.

    Google Scholar 

  36. ASDA Report. Bonnet M, Carley D, Guilleminault C, Hirshkowitz M, Keenan S, Roehrs T, Weber S. Recording and scoring leg movements. Sleep 1993;16:748–59.

    Google Scholar 

  37. ASDA Report. Chesson AL, Ferber RA, Fry JM, et al. Practice parameters for the indications for polysomnography and related procedures. Sleep 1997;20:406–22.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Standards of practice committee of the American academy of sleep medicine. Practice parameters for the indications for polysomnography and related procedures: An update for 2005. Sleep 2005;28;499–521.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Terzano MG, Parrino L, Smerieri A, Chervin R, Chokroverty S, Guilleminault C, Hirshkowitz M, Mahowald M, Moldofsky H, Rosa A, Thomas R, Walters A. et al. Atlas, rules, and recording technique for scoring of cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) in human sleep. Sleep Med. 2002;3:187–199.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Zucconi M, Ferri R, Allen R, Baier PC, Bruni O, Chokroverty S, Ferrini-Strambi L, Fulda S, Garcia-Borreguero D, et al. The official World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) standards for recording and scoring periodic leg movements in sleep (PLMS) and wakefulness (PLMW). Developed in collaboration with a task force from the international restless legs syndrome study group (IRLSSG). Sleep Med. 2006;7:175–183.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Iber C, Ancoli-Israel S, Chesson A, Quan SF. For the American academy of sleep medicine: The AASM manual for the scoring of sleep and associated events: rules, terminology and technical specifications. Westchester, Ill: American Academy of Sleep Medicine; 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Coleman Coleman RM, Roffwarg HP, Kennedy SJ, Guilleminault C, Cinque J, Cohn MA, Karacan I, Kupfer DJ, Lemmi H, Miles LE, Orr WC, Phillips ER, Roth T, Sassin JF, Schmidt HS, Weitzman ED, Dement WC. Sleep-wake disorders based on a polysomnographic diagnosis. A national cooperative study. JAMA. 1982;247:997–1003.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Kryger MH, Roth T, Dement WC. Priniciples and practice of sleep medicine, 5th ed. St. Louis: Elsevier Saunders; 2011. p. xxvii.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Gastaut H, Tassinari C, Duron B. Etude polygraphique des manifestations episodique (hypniques et respiratoires) du syndrome de Pickwick. Rev Neurol. 1965;112:568–79.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Glaser EM, Ruchkin DS. Principles of neurobiological signal analysis. New York: Academic Press; 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Hirshkowitz M, Sharafkhaneh A. Comparison of portable monitoring with laboratory polysomnography for diagnosing sleep-related breathing disorders: scoring and interpretation. Sleep Med Clin 2011; 6: 283–292.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine and Menninger, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

    Assoc. Prof. Max Hirshkowitz PhD

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

    Assoc. Prof. Max Hirshkowitz PhD

  3. Sleep Disorders & Research Center, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Assoc. Prof. Max Hirshkowitz PhD

  4. Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 77025, Houston, 2002 Holcombe Blvd-Stop Code 111i, Sleep Center, 3426 LinkwoodTX, USA

    Assoc. Prof. Max Hirshkowitz PhD

Authors
  1. Assoc. Prof. Max Hirshkowitz PhD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Max Hirshkowitz PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, New Jersey Neuroscience Institute JFK Medical Center, Edison, New Jersey, USA

    Sudhansu Chokroverty

  2. Department of Neurology, Gui de Chauliac Hospital, Montpellier, France

    Michel Billiard

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hirshkowitz, M. (2015). The History of Polysomnography: Tool of Scientific Discovery. In: Chokroverty, S., Billiard, M. (eds) Sleep Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2089-1_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2089-1_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2088-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2089-1

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation