Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
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To identify the frequency and duration of those arousals exceeding fifteen seconds in length, in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. ⋯ Patients with obstructive sleep apnea experience frequent respiratory event associated cortical arousals, many of which are greater than fifteen seconds in duration. There is the potential for these more prolonged arousals to be scored as epochs of Wake, which may result in their being reported as contributing to Wake After Sleep Onset (WASO) time, rather than as distinct arousals. This may result in an under-appreciation of both the frequency with which these prolonged arousals may occur, and the potential effect these arousals may have on the severity of the sleep fragmentation.