Brain Rhythm Waves Pattern before Waking Up in Children: A Single-Center Study

After going through the alpha wave before waking, a person usually enters the conscious phase physiologically by opening the eyes and communicating with the environment. We conducted the present study to investigate the brain rhythm wave pattern before waking up among the children admitted to the sleep clinic at Ghods Children's Hospital, Qazvin, Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, we investigated 42 children without physical or acute respiratory diseases for brain rhythm wave patterns, 15 seconds before waking up. Data were analyzed manually from the poly-somnography (PSG) recorded during sleep. Then, we divided the children into two groups based on the results of the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), i.e., mild to moderate and severe AHI. The frequency of brain waves before waking up on epochs 30s, 10s, and 1s were checked between the two groups statistically.

Alpha waves appeared before waking up as the principal brain waves. The frequency of alpha waves went through a decreasing rate until they reached 10 Hz, and then the child woke up. We observed three repetitions of 10 Hz frequencies before waking up for both groups of low-moderate and high AHI.

Awakening happens with a specific trigger of alpha waves in the occipital lobe in the N2 phase at a 10 Hz frequency.