Sex Differences in the Sleep EEG of Young Adults: Visual Scoring and Spectral Analysis

Abstract

Baseline sleep of 13 men (mean age of 23.5 years) and 15 women (21.9 years) was analyzed. Visual scoring of the electroencephalograms (EEGs) revealed no significant differences between the sexes in the amounts of slow-wave sleep and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Spectral analysis, however, detected significantly higher power densities during non-REM sleep over a wide frequency range (0.25-11.0 Hz) in the female versus male subjects. Also, during REM sleep, power densities were higher in the females. Analysis of the time course of EEG power density during sleep revealed that the differences between males and females persisted throughout the sleep episode. Comparison of these differences with published data on the effects of sleep deprivation on EEG power spectra did not suggest a common mechanism underlying sleep deprivation effects and the sex difference in sleep EEGs. It is concluded that sex differences in EEG power spectra are not likely to be caused by sex differences in sleep regulatory mechanisms but may, for instance, be caused by sex differences in skull characteristics.

Slow wave sleep in patients with respiratory failure

“…This is not a new observation as females have long been noted to have greater amounts of SWS and concomitantly greater EEG power in the delta frequency 8 , 26,27 _ENREF_28 Our study confirms that this gender effect is still evidence even in the context of severe hypercapnia.…”

State Markers of Depression in Sleep EEG: Dependency on Drug and Gender in Patients Treated with Tianeptine or Paroxetine

“…It is important to note that two principally different types of spindles exist, those with a frequency of about 11-13 Hz and those with a frequency of about 14-16 Hz (Aeschbach et al, 1994;Tagaya et al, 2000;Landolt et al, 1996). Gender differences in the EEG spectrum of non-REM sleep exist in young healthy subjects (Dijk et al, 1989;Antonijevic et al, 1999a) and in patients with depression (Antonijevic et al, 2000b). Interestingly, the relation of the power of EEG activity of the higher sigma frequency range (14-16 Hz) to that of the delta frequency range (0.5-4.5 Hz) seems to be increased in male depressed subjects compared to healthy males, whereas depressed women do not show a difference compared to female controls (Antonijevic et al, 2000a).…”

Sex differences in sleep: impact of biological sex and sex steroids

“…Consistent with the suggestion of poor sleep, men in this study also exhibit a higher arousal index and lower sleep efficiency. Another [33,[39][40][41][42] and is less affected by aging in women [41]. Following sleep deprivation (SD), women also have a greater SWA in recovery sleep, suggesting that sleep debt accumulates more quickly in women giving rise to sex differences in the ability to recover from sleep loss [43].…”