RESPIRATORY AND ELECTROCORTICAL RESPONSES TO ACOUSTIC STIMULATION

Although sleep-related obstructive apnea is most often associated with transient arousal, the impact of this arousal on respiratory control remains unclear. We employed binaural tone bursts (.5 second duration) to elicit repetitive transient arousals from sleep during polygraphic recordings in 5 adult volunteers. By this method, we elicited repetit ive transient arousals with a mean duration of approximately 10 second s from all stages of sleep. With respect to the 3 pre-stimulus breaths , acoustic stimulation was associated with increased tidal volume and decreased inspiratory duration for at least 4 breaths. These respirato ry responses to acoustic stimulation were not significantly influenced by either presence of transient arousal from sleep or the sleep state from which arousal occurred. We conclude that transient electro-corti cal state changes may be repeatedly evoked from all sleep stages by tr ansient acoustic stimulation in normal sleepers. This sensory stimulat ion represents a significant respiratory stimulus even when generalize d arousal from sleep does not occur.