EEG time and frequency domain analyses of primary insomnia

In this work, we present a range of electroencephalographic (EEG) time and frequency domain features that can be used to characterize patients suffering with primary insomnia. When evaluated using 10 insomniacs and 10 healthy subjects, we found significant differences in the feature values between the two groups. Participants with primary insomnia were observed to have significantly elevated Hjorth's parameters particularly complexity, high zero crossing rates specifically during wake and sleep stage 1 and high gamma power in all sleep stages. Given the significant differences between the two groups, these features can be used to better understand the sleep dynamics of insomniacs and accurately discriminate insomniac EEG data from that of healthy subjects.