WHAT ARE SPONTANEOUS AROUSALS?

[zalez]

Hey everyone,

Its me again!!

I was reading my last sleep study and it showed 21 "Spontaneous Arousals"

Question: WHAT ARE SPONTANEOUS AROUSALS?

thaks all!!

[BasementDwellingGeek]

Clicking the light bulb above and searching for "Spontaneous Arousals" produced no result. But searching for "Arousal" did give this:

An Arousal is an abrupt change from a "deeper" stage of non-REM sleep to a "lighter" stage (Normally to stage 1).

This is distinct from an awakening, which is an arousal that lasts for more than 15 seconds.

Further searching on the internet suggests

there are 3 types of arousals reported out on the sleep studies- those attributed to respiratory events, periodic limb movements and those that are spontaneous. Spontaneous arousals have no directly attributable cause, or cannot be linked to the first 2 reasons for arousals.