SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF SLEEP - STATISTICAL-ANALYSIS IN A POPULATIONOF HEALTHY-SUBJECTS

A principal components analysis was carried out on subjective data obt ained from the sleep questionnaire systematically used in our laborato ry on the morning following a polysomnographic recording. This techniq ue, based on 70 healthy subjects, revealed three principal axes which explore the questionnaire. The first axis reflects the subjective eval uation of the quality of sleep. The second underlines the importance o f dreams and of the brief waking periods which immediately follow. Fin ally, the third axis brings out the subjective assessment of sleep eff iciency. The third axis was the most ambiguous and the only one to sho w a gender difference. Women tend to better estimate general sleep eve nts, while men tend to evaluate better the more circumstantial events. Finally, given the results, it would be interesting to apply a simila r analysis to populations presenting sleep disorders in order to estab lish the presence of an eventual pattern specific to the disorder.