Association between nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) and sleep of stage 1 with REMs in chronic alcoholics.
An unusual sleep stage, composed of low amplitude theta activity in the EEG, rapid eye movements (REMs) and tonic EMG in skeletal muscles has been found in chronic alcoholics. Some researchers regard this as a variation of REM sleep, but others believe it to be fundamentally different from REM sleep. Since it is well known that penile tumescence (PT) occurs during REM sleep, I investigated the occurrence of PT during this unusual sleep stage in male alcoholics to determine whether it should be viewed as REM sleep. PT did not occur during this stage. NO differences were found in the amount of REM sleep between chronic alcoholics and normal controls. Moreover, the mean duration of total PT, and the mean durations of maximum and semi-episode PT were shorter in the alcoholics than in normal controls.
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
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Dainoson
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010410:Penile Erection; D012895:Sleep, REM; D013997:Time Factors