A dramatic increase in REM sleep time at the expense of slow wave slee
p has been reported in patients on clozapine monotherapy (5). It is no
w suggested that this effect of clozapine on the sleep pattern could b
e due to a dissociation of the NREM/REM sleep cycle, and that the epil
eptogenic EEG abnormalities induced by clozapine in daytime recordings
(2) would represent a dose-dependent activation on NREM sleep mechani
sm during wakefulness. The implications of this theory in relation to
the concept of schizophrenia are discussed.