Sleep wake cycling in early preterm infants: comparison of polysomnographic recordings with a novel EEG-based index

Objective: To document the occurrence of genuine sleep stages in the early preterm babies, and to develop an EEG-based index for following sleep wake cyclicity.

Methods: Twelve preterm babies were recruited from a study that assessed ventilator strategies. We used altogether 18 polysomnography recordings that were collected at mean conceptional age of 29.3 (25.9-32.7) weeks. Spontaneous activity transients (SAT) were detected automatically and their cumulative coverage in each 20s interval was computed from the EEG derivations C3-A2 and O2-A1. Mean SAT% values between sleep stages were compared.

Results: All babies exhibited all sleep stages, however the sleep was remarkably fragmentary in infants due to their respiratory issues. The EEG index, SAT% showed temporal behavior that strikingly well compared with the sleep stage fluctuations in the hypnogram. In the statistical analysis we found significant differences in all recordings between the deep (quiet) sleep and the REM sleep.

Conclusion: Genuine sleep states exist in the early preterm babies, and changes in sleep stages are reflected in the EEG activity in a way that can be readily measured by assessing fluctuation of the automatically detected, EEG based index, the SAT%.

Significance: The findings open a possibility to construct automated analysis or monitoring of sleep wake cyclicity into brain monitors in neonatal intensive care unit.