An assessment of sleep architecture as a function of degree of handedness in college women using a home sleep monitor.

The present study examined sleep architecture as a function of handedness in a population of undergraduate college women using a home sleep monitor. Compared to strongly handed individuals, participants with a tendency toward mixed-handedness had a shorter sleep latency and spent a greater percentage of their sleep period asleep and less awake. Increasing mixed-handedness was also associated with increased NREM; strong-handedness was associated with increased REM. Results are placed in a neurophysiological framework wherein corpus callosum mediated differences in interhemispheric interaction during Wake, REM, and NREM on the one hand, and individual differences in corpus callosum morphology and hemispheric communication as a function of handedness on the other, interact to result in handedness differences in sleep architecture.