Abstract
Our objective was to clarify the sleep states of bedridden elderly patients with disturbances of consciousness. We studied a bedridden elderly in patient with disturbances of consciousness for 24 hours in March 2010. We recorded the electroencephalograms, electro-oculograms, and electromyograms of the study subject. We classified the electrograms thus obtained into sleep stages according to international standards and identified various sleep variables and the patients' sleep structures. A patient showed very high values for sleep efficiency (SE), 97.8%. The number of awakenings was 36, the percentage of SWS was 1.0%, and the percentage of REM sleep was 8.5%. It is inappropriate to use SE and SWS as indicators of good sleep quality in such patients. To improve their sleep quality, further study is needed to determine better indicators of good sleep and to investigate respiratory conditions as a potential factor in sleep quality in this subgroup.
