Electrodermal Activity and Sleep Storms in Elderly Epileptic Patients

Electrodermal Activity (EDA) is a measure of skin conductance that reflects autonomic nervous system activity, offering insight into stress, emotional regulation, and autonomic arousals. This study investigates EDA fluctuations and sleep storms in older patients (≥50 years) with epilepsy, a population that has been underrepresented in previous research. We analyzed concurrent EEG and EDA recordings from 18 patients with 31 recording samples to characterize EDA events, particularly their distribution across sleep stages and quadrants of the night. Our findings reveal that Electrodermal Responses predominantly occur during N2 sleep, likely due to an age-related reduction in N3 duration. Contrary to prior reports of reduced EDA activity in REM sleep, we observed autonomic arousals during REM, suggesting activation of the central autonomic network during this sleep stage as well. Sleep storms showed variations depending on both sleep stage and time of night. Sleep storms were found to span multiple sleep stages, most commonly originating in N2, followed by REM and N1, with longer durations when originating earlier in the night. These results highlight the potential of EDA as a biomarker for sleep physiology and autonomic regulation in aging and epilepsy. Future studies should explore its implications for neurological health, cognitive function, and sleep quality assessment.Clinical Relevance- This work enhances our understanding of autonomic arousals during sleep in older adults with epilepsy, offering potential biomarkers for sleep quality assessment and neurological health monitoring.