Reduction in the propensity of rapid eye movement sleep and phasic-to-tonic ratio in patients with refractory epilepsy

Study Objectives Patients with epilepsy exhibit disturbed sleep architecture and shorter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep compared with healthy controls. REM sleep consists of two microstates, phasic and tonic REM. Studies suggest that epileptic activity is suppressed in phasic but not in tonic REM. However, changes in the REM microstructure in patients with epilepsy are still unknown. Therefore, this study evaluated the differences in REM microstructure between patients with refractory and medically controlled epilepsy. Methods This retrospective case-control study included patients with refractory and medically controlled epilepsy. Sleep parameters of the patients were recorded by standard polysomnography. In addition, the microstructures of sleep and REM sleep were compared between the two epilepsy groups. Results Forty-two patients with refractory epilepsy and 106 with medically controlled epilepsy were evaluated. The refractory group showed significantly decreased REM sleep (p = 0.0062), particularly in the first and second sleep cycles (p = 0.0028 and 0.00482, respectively), as well as longer REM latency (p = 0.0056). Eighteen and 28 subjects in the refractory and medically controlled epilepsy groups, respectively, with comparable REM sleep percentages, underwent REM microstructure examination. Phasic REM sleep was significantly lower in the refractory group (4.5% +/- 2.1% vs. 8.0% +/- 4.1%; p = 0.002). In addition, the phasic-to-tonic ratio was significantly decreased (4.8 +/- 2.3 vs. 8.9 +/- 4.9; p = 0.002) and negatively associated with refractory epilepsy (coefficient = -0.308, p = 0.0079). Conclusion Patients with refractory epilepsy exhibited REM sleep disturbance at both macro and microstructure levels.