A Review of Sleep-Related Violence: The Demographics of Sleep Forensics Referrals to a Single Center.

This review of sleep-related violence reports the nature of the underlying sleep-suspected conditions enountered and helps establish the spectrum of sleep-related behaviors resulting in forensic consequences. This information may begin to bridge the gap between the differing medical and legal concepts of automatisms (complex motor behaviors occurring in the absence of conscious awareness and therefore without culpability). Sleep medicine professionals are increasingly asked by legal professionals whether a sleep-related condition could have played a role in a forensic-related event.

Test-Retest Reliability of Two Consecutive Mean Sleep Latency Tests in Patients with Hypersomnia.

Reliability of mean sleep latency testing (MSLT) over consecutive days in patients with hypersomnia is unknown. We reviewed MSLTs of patients with hypersomnia without cataplexy who underwent our two consecutive MSLT protocol (N=29). Average MSLs were 10.

Definition and diagnostic criteria of sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy.

The syndrome known as nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy is recognized worldwide and has been studied in a wide range of clinical and scientific settings (epilepsy, sleep medicine, neurosurgery, pediatric neurology, epidemiology, genetics). Though uncommon, it is of considerable interest to practicing neurologists because of complexity in differential diagnosis from more common, benign sleep disorders such as parasomnias, or other disorders like psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Moreover, misdiagnosis can have substantial adverse consequences on patients' lives.

REM sleep behaviour disorder: a window on the sleeping brain.

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Ictal SPECT in patients with rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder’, by Mayer (doi:10.1093/brain/awv042).

Are confusional arousals pathological?

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the extent that confusional arousals (CAs) are associated with mental disorders and psychotropic medications.

Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted with a representative sample of 19,136 noninstitutionalized individuals of the US general population aged 18 years or older. The study was performed using the Sleep-EVAL expert system and investigated sleeping habits; health; and sleep, mental, and medical conditions (DSM-IV-TR, ICSD-II, ICD-10).

Delayed emergence of a parkinsonian disorder or dementia in 81% of older men initially diagnosed with idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder: a 16-year update on a previously reported series.

Objective: To provide a 16-year update from the authors' 1996 report documenting a 38% conversion from idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) to a parkinsonian disorder at a mean interval of nearly 13 years after the onset of iRBD in a series of 29 males > or =50 years old.

Methods: The methods of evaluation, diagnosis and follow-up were previously described in the 1996 report. All patients had video-polysomnography (vPSG) confirmed RBD.

State dissociation, human behavior, and consciousness.

Sleep is clearly not only a whole-brain or global phenomenon, but can also be a local phenomenon. This accounts for the fact that the primary states of being (wakefulness, NREM sleep, and REM sleep) are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and components of these states may appear in various combinations, with fascinating clinical consequences. Examples include: sleep inertia, narcolepsy, sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, REM sleep behavior disorder, sleepwalking, sleep terrors, out-of-body experiences, and reports of alien abduction.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction versus pharmacotherapy for chronic primary insomnia: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a treatment for chronic primary insomnia.

Design: A randomized controlled trial was conducted.

Setting: The study was conducted at a university health center.

Violence in sleep.

Although generally considered as mutually exclusive, violence and sleep can coexist. Violence related to the sleep period is probably more frequent than generally assumed and can be observed in various conditions including parasomnias (such as arousal disorders and rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder), epilepsy (in particular nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy) and psychiatric diseases (including delirium and dissociative states). Important advances in the fields of genetics, neuroimaging and behavioural neurology have expanded the understanding of the mechanisms underlying violence and its particular relation to sleep.