Time course of EEG slow-wave activity in pre-school children with sleep disordered breathing: a possible mechanism for daytime deficits?

Daytime deficits in children with sleep disordered breathing (SDB) are theorized to result from hypoxic insult to the developing brain or fragmented sleep. Yet, these do not explain why deficits occur in primary snorers (PS). The time course of slow wave EEG activity (SWA), a proxy of homeostatic regulation and cortical maturation, may provide insight. METHODS: Clinical and control subjects (N=175: mean age 4.3+/-0.9y: 61 male) participated in overnight polysomnography (PSG). Standard sleep scoring and power spectral analyses were conducted on EEG (C4/A1; 0.5-5 events/h). Group differences were found in the percentage of time spent in NREM Stages 1 and 4 (p