Chin EMG analysis for REM sleep behavior disorders

Many sleep disorders not only diminish daytime performance, increase sleepiness, and affect mood of an individual, but can lead to serious consequences such as: high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and even death. The analysis of chin electromyography (EMG) usually reflects an inhibitory influence on motor activity and muscle tone. Based on literature, it has been reported that the level of chin EMG drops to its lowest level during REM between normal and there is an increase in amplitude in rapid eye movement behavior disorder (RBD) cohorts. In this work, a research study is conducted across eight subjects, to evaluate chin EMG during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep cycle and to measure the strength of muscle activation. The obtained results show that there is a significant increase in RMS value of chin EMG in RBD in comparison to healthy subjects, i.e. RMS value for RBD is at least 2.5 times the normal. Further, the change in regularity among healthy and RBD subjects is investigated for facilitating efficient characterization of sleep-related disorders. Such an analysis could be targeted towards providing a useful objective measure for assessing response to neuroprotective drugs.