Effects of arginine vasotocin on REM sleep in narcoleptics and in symptomatic hypersomniacs

Abstract Arginine vasotocin (AVT), in doses of 1.5 μg, administered intranasally to two narcoleptics (a male aged 42 years and a female aged 35 years), as well as to 5 symptomatic hypersomniacs (3 females and 2 males), aged 25–57 years, induced very rapidly in most instances a sleep with REM periods at onset and markedly increased the amount of REM sleep during a fixed period of 180 min of sleep recording. After AVT administration there was a significant shortening of the time of occurrence of the first REM sleep period both in narcoleptics ( t test = 0.05 > P > 0.025) and in symptomatic hypersomniacs ( t test = 0.02 > P > 0.01).