Sleep disorders in depression.

Recently some hypotheses explaining sleep disturbances in depression have been proposed. One hypothesis assumes an advanced phase position of the circadian pacemaker controlling a.o. REM sleep (REMS) production. In another a deficiency of process S is proposed. In this paper the sleep of depressed patients and healthy subjects is compared with respect to REMS production and EEG power density (a possible reflection of process S). Data were derived from the literature and from own experiments. The results provide support only for the S deficiency hypothesis.