Figure 2.
Sleep fragmentation in aging is specific to slow wave sleep. Continuity of sleep manifested by survival curves (cumulative probability distributions) of stage-specific sleep runs in older (black) and younger (white) subjects. No significant difference between subjects was observed in the survival curves for REM (A), NREM 1 (B), or NREM 2 (C) sleep. The survival curve for older subjects showed a significant shift toward shorter runs of NREM 3 (slow wave) sleep compared with younger subjects, p < 0.001, log rank test (D). SWS = slow wave sleep.