title: Sleep bruxism is a disorder related to periodic arousals during sleep.
abstract: There is evidence that sleep bruxism is an arousal-related phenomenon. In non-REM sleep, transient arousals recur at 20- to 40-second intervals and are organized according to a cyclic alternating pattern. Polysomnographic recordings from six subjects (two females and four males) affected by sleep bruxism (patients) and six healthy age-and gender-matched volunteers without complaints about sleep (controls) were analyzed to: (1) compare the sleep structure of bruxers with that of non-complaining subjects; and (2) investigate the relations between bruxism episodes and transient arousals. Patients and controls showed no significant differences in conventional sleep variables, but bruxers showed a significantly higher number of the transient arousals characterized by EEG desynchronization. Bruxism episodes were equally distributed between non-REM and REM sleep, but were more frequent in stages 1 and 2 (p < 0.0001) than in slow-wave sleep. The great majority of bruxism episodes detected in non-REM sleep (88%) were associated with the cyclic alternating pattern and always occurred during a transient arousal. Heart rate during the bruxism episodes (69.3+/-18.2) was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) than that during the pre-bruxing period (58.1+/-15.9). Almost 80% of all bruxism episodes were associated with jerks at the anterior tibial muscles. The framework of the cyclic alternating pattern offers a unified interpretation for sleep bruxism and arousal-related phenomena.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Clinica Odontoiatrica, Università degli Studi di Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Macaluso
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Giovanni
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boselli
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Parrino
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Terzano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D002012:Bruxism / Q000209:etiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D003700:Delta Rhythm; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology; D017286:Polysomnography; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology; D013035:Spasm / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors