A CLINICAL STUDY OF SLEEP DISTURBANCES
BURTRUM C. SCHIELE M. D.1
1 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
The motilograph is an especially valuable measure of physiological rest if not of sleep. Comparisons of motility records with nurses' sleep charts have emphasized some of the objections that may be raised to the latter as an adequate picture of the patient's sleep, although they are the best routine measure available.
A sharp distinction must be made, however, between motilogram measures and the nurse's sleep graph, as the two are poorly correlated and in many patients give widely different pictures. For purposes of scientific investigation of the sleep of patients, the motilogram or some other objective measure is greatly to be preferred.
In any psychiatric ward the motilograph will be found useful as a special adjunct to therapeutic management and as a measure of the patient's progress.
