On the Individuality of Sleep EEG Spectra

Research in recent years has supported the hypothesis that many properties of the electroencephalogram (EEG) are specific to an individual. In this study, the intra- and inter-individual variations of sleep EEG signals were investigated. This was carried out by analyzing the stability of the average EEG spectra individually computed for the Rechtschaffen and Kales (RK) sleep stages. Six EEG channels were used to account for the topographical aspect of the analysis. Validity of the results was supported by considering a wide dataset of 174 subjects with normal sleep. Subjects spent two consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory during which EEG recordings were obtained. High similarity between average spectra of two consecutive nights was found considering an individual. More than 89% of the second night recordings were correctly assigned to their counterparts of the first night. The average spectra of sleep EEG computed for each RK sleep stage have shown a high degree of individuality.