CARDIAC AUTONOMIC ACTIVITY DURING WAKEFULNESS AND SLEEP IN REM-SLEEP BEHAVIOR DISORDER

In REM sleep behavior disorder (RED) it has been reported that tachyca rdia may not accompany the impressive movements associated with dream mentation. Up to now there are no data concerning the cardiac autonomi c activity during wakefulness, as well as during sleep out of nocturna l dream-enacting behaviors, in RED. We evaluated 14 RED patients. Our study shows that only 36% of patients had normal results in all tradit ional autonomic tests during wakefulness. Moreover, RED patients had a reduced tonic and phasic heart rate variability during sleep. Autonom ic evaluation during sleep may show impairment earlier than the tradit ional tests during wakefulness. No difference was found between idiopa thic RED patients and symptomatic ones.