ICP Changes During Sleep in Man

Intracranial pressure (ICP) has the characteristic of a dynamic physiological phenomenon, and demonstrates many kinds of variation in a day. These ICP variations accompany such physiological phenomenon as respiration, pulse, etc., while ICP rises in cases where there is some intracranial pathology. It therefore is necessary to record ICP continually in order to clarify the mechanism of ICP variation due to intracranial pathology. Sleep is one of the physiological phenomena in diurnal rhythm influencing ICP. It has been observed that ICP increases during REM sleep (SREM).