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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 102 » Issue 17
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 178104 (2009) [4 pages]

Markov Analysis of Sleep Dynamics

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J. W. Kim1,2, J.-S. Lee3, P. A. Robinson1,2,4, and D.-U. Jeong3
1School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
2Brain Dynamics Center, Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead Hospital and Western Clinical School of The University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales 2145, Australia
3Department of Psychiatry, Center for Sleep and Chronobiology, and Clinical Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Hospital, Seoul 110-744, Republic of Korea
4Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia

Received 26 September 2008; published 1 May 2009

See accompanying Physics Focus

A new approach, based on a Markov transition matrix, is proposed to explain frequent sleep and wake transitions during sleep. The matrix is determined by analyzing hypnograms of 113 obstructive sleep apnea patients. Our approach shows that the statistics of sleep can be constructed via a single Markov process and that durations of all states have modified exponential distributions, in contrast to recent reports of a scale-free form for the wake stage and an exponential form for the sleep stage. Hypnograms of the same subjects, but treated with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, are analyzed and compared quantitatively with the pretreatment ones, suggesting potential clinical applications.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.178104
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.178104
PACS:
87.10.Mn, 02.50.−r, 87.15.A−, 89.75.−k
 
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