title: Sleep disruption following paramedian pontine stroke.
abstract: Pontine structures are critical for the generation of rapid eye movement sleep but there are only a few reports of the effects of focal pontine lesions on sleep patterns in humans. We report the case of an 81-year-old man admitted for the acute onset of disordered speech and motor deficit in the upper right arm who developed hypersomnia within a week. A 24-hour polysomnographic study revealed a very severe disruption of both circadian rhythm and sleep organisation, and a brain MRI documented an ischaemic lesion of the anterior left paramedian portion of the pons. Our observation suggests that even small, paramedian pontine ischaemic lesions can acutely induce a very severe sleep disorder.
authors.affiliation: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Centro di Medicina dell'Invecchiamento, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, Rome 00168, Italy.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tosato
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aquila
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Della Marca
authors.forename: Raffaele Antonelli
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Incalzi
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gambassi