I continue with Dr. Matilde Valencia’s book on a subject that we know today as polysomnography (PSG), which allows sleep to be measured in all its phases or stages, to see and count eye movements during sleep, almost always associated with dream activity, limb movement, heart rate, rhythm and disturbances, arrhythmias, respiratory rate and obstructions (apneas) and the cascade of associated events such as hypoxemia and hypercapnia, changes in brain electrical function, whose activity by amplifiers is acquired, collected, plotted and interpreted according to the knowledge generated by omnilogists during several decades of work.
The watch-sleep cycle coexists in parallel with other circadian rhythms, for example, that of blood pressure. Hypertension can occur specifically during sleep and not when awake. Our blood pressure may go up instead of down where it is expected to drop 10 to 20 percent from the waking number. Also, control of breathing may become more variable, respiratory flow build up or cease, or seizures may occur only during sleep.
Since we are asleep, these alterations often go unnoticed, except for tiredness, fatigue, drowsiness, cognitive alterations and irritability when we wake up the next day.
Some individuals may lose muscle inhibition, the atony that occurs during REM sleep and we see them acting out their dreams, presenting behaviors while sleeping such as hitting, kicking, defending themselves from the alleged aggressor, putting themselves or the companion in bed at risk . This acting in dreams, generally in men over 50 years of age, can be a precursor (prodrome) of neurogenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and dementia.
Sleep and sleep disorders will increasingly be explored in patient assessments in conventional medicine. If a healthy sleep is not maintained, it has several consequences in the state of general health and treatment of sleeping diseases that can help control metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, among others.
Dr. Valencia’s book Polysomnography in adults: basic concepts, technique and clinical application It will be presented today at 11 am in the main auditorium of the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition Salvador Zubirán (INCMNSZ), with the participation of Dr. María Elena Medina Mora, director of the Faculty of Psychology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico; Dr. David Kershenobich, director of the INCMNSZ, and comments on the book by Dr. León Rosenthal of the Texas Sleep Medical Society, and Dr. Carlos G. Cantú, head of Neurology and Psychiatry at the INCMNSZ.
At the end, Dr. Valencia will comment on your book.
