Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Findings from the Sleep Research Society.

Objectives: To characterize representation and inclusion among Sleep Research Society members and examine associations between sociodemographic features and Sleep Research Society experiences.

Methods: The Sleep Research Society Taskforce for Diversity and Inclusion developed a web-based questionnaire in 2021, assessing membership data and Sleep Research Society experiences (self-initiated and society-initiated participation, feeling very welcomed, perceptions of inclusiveness, and diversity of viewpoints represented). Frequencies were calculated and adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance were fit to estimate associations.

Sleep-related (psychogenic) dissociative disorders as parasomnias associated with a psychiatric disorder: update on reported cases.

Study Objectives: To update the literature on the diagnostic category of sleep-related dissociative disorders (SRDDs), involving psychogenic dissociation, since the time of their inclusion in the parasomnias section of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, second edition, in 2005; to summarize the most salient clinical and video-polysomnographic (vPSG) findings and typical clinical profile from all reported cases; and to provide the rationale for the re-inclusion of the group of SRDDs in future editions of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders.

Methods: A systematic computerized literature search was conducted searching for SRDDs, nocturnal dissociative disorders, and nocturnal dissociation.

Results: Nine additional cases were identified, with sufficient clinical history and vPSG findings to justify the diagnosis of SRDDs, supplementing the 11 cases cited in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, second edition, for a total of 20 cases.

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.

Valid measures of periodic leg movements (PLMs) during a suggested immobilization test using the PAM-RL leg activity monitors require adjusting detection parameters for noise and signal in each recording.

Objective And Background: Individuals with restless legs syndrome (RLS) (Willis-Ekbom disease [WED]) usually have periodic leg movements (PLMs). The suggested immobilization test (SIT) measures sensory and motor features of WED during wakefulness. Surface electromyogram (EMG) recordings of the anterior tibialis (AT) are used as the standard for counting PLMs.

Implanted upper airway stimulation device for obstructive sleep apnea.

Objectives/hypothesis: Previous feasibility studies have shown that electrical stimulation of the hypoglossal nerve can improve obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The current study examined the safety and preliminary effectiveness of a second generation device, the Upper Airway Stimulation (UAS) system, and identified baseline predictors for therapy success.

Study Design: Two consecutive open prospective studies.

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.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction for solid organ transplant recipients: a randomized controlled trial.

Context: Patients who have received solid organ transplants continue to experience a myriad of complex symptoms related to their underlying disease and to chronic immunosuppression that reduce the quality of life. Beneficial nonpharmacologic therapies to address these symptoms have not been established in the transplant population.

Objective: Assess the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and poor sleep in transplant patients.

A case of reversible restless legs syndrome (RLS) and sleep-related eating disorder relapse triggered by acute right leg herpes zoster infection: literature review of spinal cord and peripheral nervous system contributions to RLS.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is thought to be due to abnormalities of iron metabolism in the central nervous system; however, occasional cases are associated with lesions of the spinal cord, spinal rootlets, and peripheral nervous system. This is a case report of RLS exacerbated by shingles with a review of the literature of extra-cerebral lesions or disorders causing or contributing to RLS.

A case of extreme paradoxical insomnia responding selectively to electroconvulsive therapy.

Severe paradoxical insomnia, documented by actigraphy, was the predominant presenting complaint of a 48-year-old woman subsequently diagnosed with major depression. Both disorders remitted following a course of 5 electroconvulsive therapy treatments in spite of being previously refractory to hypnotic and antidepressant pharmacotherapy.

Alcohol-induced sleepwalking or confusional arousal as a defense to criminal behavior: a review of scientific evidence, methods and forensic considerations.

An increasing number of criminal cases have claimed the defendant to be in a state of sleepwalking or related disorders induced by high quantities of alcohol. Sleepwalkers who commit violent acts, sexual assaults and other criminal acts are thought to be in a state of automatism, lacking conscious awareness and criminal intent. They may be acquitted in criminal trials.

Sleep disorders: case studies.

This article reviews nine case studies of patients presenting with sleep complaints.

Sleep-related violence.

Most violent behaviors arise from wakefulness. It is important to realize that violent behaviors that may have forensic science implications can arise from the sleep period. By virtue of the fact that these behaviors arise from sleep, they are executed without conscious awareness, and, therefore, without culpability.