Sleep RR-Interval U-Patterns and Their Correlation to Movement Events

The aim of this work is to investigate the relation between a phenomenon called "U-patterns" and their possible correlation to movement events in the context of sleep deprivation. U-patterns take place in the RR-interval time series during sleep. As their name suggests, these patterns present a U-shaped decrease-increase in RR-intervals, with a duration lasting from 20 to 40 seconds together with a minimum decrease of 15% in the local RR mean value.Over a span of 17 days, 15 healthy subjects (7males, 22.1 ± 1.7 yrs.) participated in a study of three subsequent stages. First, a baseline phase of seven days, during which the subjects slept normally. Immediately after, a sleep deprivation phase with a duration of three days, during which participants slept only three hours per night. Finally, in a 7-day recovery phase subjects went back to their normal baseline sleeping routine. Subjects underwent polysomnography (PSG) data acquisition while sleeping. U-patterns were extracted from RR-intervals while movement events were extracted from different PSG channels. Their relative temporal layout was studied to determine whether U-patterns are caused due to subject movement during sleep or vice versa. Results show that U-pattern/movement events are correlated, always initiated by U-patterns with movement events terminating before the termination of their respective U-patterns.