[Clinico-physiologic analysis of sleep disorders among patients with borderline states].

In patients with an anxious syndrome of the neurotic genesis, complaints of sssleep disorders correlate with the clinical pattern of asthenic disturbances and objective changes in the sleep character (a reduction in delta-leep, frequent awakenings). In cases of hysterical neuroses, there is a dissociation between the intact structure of sleep and the absence of asthenic symptomatology on the one hand and complaints of marked sleep disturbances on the other. In cases of neurosis-like schizophrenia despite a reduction in delta-sleep, asthenic symptomatology is almost absent and complaints of sleep problems are rather formal in nature. The pathogenesis of sleep disorders in neurotic patients, including the role of anxiety in objective sleep pattern alternations, is discussed. A hypothesis relating the specific characteristics of thought to a diminished need for delta-leep in schizophrenics is proposed.