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From physiological neck myoclonus to sleep related head jerk.
Journal article

From physiological neck myoclonus to sleep related head jerk.

  • Wolfensberger B Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.
  • Ferri R Sleep Research Centre, Oasi Research Institute-IRCCS, Troina, Italy.
  • Bianco G Sleep and Epilepsy Center, Neurocenter of the Southern Switzerland, Civic Hospital of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland.
  • Abbafati M Sleep and Epilepsy Center, Neurocenter of the Southern Switzerland, Civic Hospital of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland.
  • Miano S Sleep and Epilepsy Center, Neurocenter of the Southern Switzerland, Civic Hospital of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland.
  • Kaelin-Lang A Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.
  • Bassetti CL Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.
  • Manconi M Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.
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  • 2019-03-01
Published in:
  • Journal of sleep research. - 2019
REM sleep
polysomnography
sleep related motor disorder
twitches
Aged
Female
Humans
Male
Myoclonus
Neck
Polysomnography
Sleep
Sleep, REM
English Neck myoclonus (NM) is a frequent recently described sleep-related motor phenomenon occurring mainly during REM sleep with uncertain effect on sleep continuity. To better describe this phenomenon we studied 11 consecutive drug-free patients undergoing a video-polysomnographic (V-PSG) study who present at least 5 NM events in one single night of recording. All events were measured and checked for their association with rapid eye and leg movements, EEG arousals, awakenings and Bereitschaftspotential. One hundred and eighty-two motor events from 11 subjects were analyzed. Motor events were approximately 0.5 s in duration and occurred during REM sleep in 79.7% of the cases. Only 14.8% of the events were associated with rapid eye movements, 52.2% with leg movements, while approximately 80% of them were accompanied by an arousal or awakening. No EEG abnormalities and Bereitschaftspotential were observed. For its duration and its segregation in sleep, NM could be more appropriately named "sleep-related head jerks" (SRHJ). SRHJ should be recognized and its effect on sleep stability should be re-considered.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/193001
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