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. 2020 Oct 26;9(11):3425.
doi: 10.3390/jcm9113425.

Daytime Neurophysiological Hyperarousal in Chronic Insomnia: A Study of qEEG

Da Young Oh  1 , Su Mi Park  2   3 , Sung Won Choi  1
Affiliations

Daytime Neurophysiological Hyperarousal in Chronic Insomnia: A Study of qEEG

Da Young Oh et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: The hyperarousal model demonstrates that instability of sleep-wake regulation leads to insomnia symptoms and various neurophysiological hyperarousal states. Previous studies have shown that hyperarousal states that appear in chronic insomnia patients are not limited to sleep at nighttime but are stable characteristics that extend into the daytime. However, this phenomenon is mainly measured at bedtime, so it hard to determine whether it is maintained throughout a 24 h cycle or if it just appears at bedtime.

Methods: We examined the resting state qEEG (quantitative electroencephalogram) and ECG (electrocardiogram) of chronic insomnia patients (n = 24) compared to good sleepers (n = 22) during the daytime.

Results: As compared with controls, participants with insomnia showed a clearly high beta band activity in eyes closed condition at all brain areas. They showed a low frequency band at the frontal area; high frequency bands at the central and parietal areas were found in eyes open condition. Significantly higher heart rates were also found in the chronic insomnia group.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that chronic insomnia patients were in a state of neurophysiological hyperarousal during the middle of the day due to abnormal arousal regulation.

Keywords: ECG; chronic insomnia; hyperarousal; qEEG.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Significant differences between INS and NSC of heart rate. INS showed more increased heart rate than NSC in ECG analysis. ** p < 0.001.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Source network analysis using 20 Brodmann area (BA) regions of interest (ROIs) within default mode network (DMN) during the eyes open condition in the delta (1–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), and high beta (25–30 Hz) bands. Red dots indicate the higher frequency spectral power of insomnia patients compared with normal sleepers, whereas blue dots indicate the opposite. p < 0.050.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlation between the delta band in the frontal region and PSQI of all participants (rho = 0.376, PFDR < 0.050).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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