CORRESPONDENCE
Dom Pedro II daytime sleepiness
TO THE EDITOR
I read with much interest the excellent article in the September 2008, volume 66, 3B issue of the Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria, on "Dom Pedro II daytime sleepinness", page 770. The thesis of the authors is plausible, but unfortunately we lack confirmation of Dom Pedro II's sleep apnea by the two possible observers, the ladies with whom he slept; they are the Empress Maria Teresa and the Italian countess with whom Dom Pedro II at times spent his nights when he was travellingin Europe. Nevertheless, the authors, Drs.Rubens Reimão, Marleide da Mota Gomes and Péricles Maranhão-Filho are probably right.
There is another possible explanationn for Dom Pedro II's daytime sleepiness1-3.
I have a special interest in it since I myself suffer from it. As all neurologists know, each person wakens for a few seconds from four to five times each night. Until old age, since the awake periods are very brief and the slumbers are very long, people rarely are aware of these very brief awake periods. In old age this changes. The awake period lenghten to from ten to twenty or more minutes. Some old persons spend 20% or more of their sleeping hours awake, and hence have daytime sleepiness during their days.
I am one of these old persons. I am 84 years old. To combat the problem I keep by my bedside a thermos bottle of camoumile hot tea, my pipe and mild tobacco, and warm milk. When I wake up I partake of these three things and, with luck, get back to sleep in ten or fifteen minutes. However, these awake periods sometimes stretch out to thirty minutes or so. During the day I struggle with my problem of daytime sleepiness with more camoumile tea, mild pipe tobacco and walks to the garden which is behind my service of neurology mainly an active EEG service which draws patients from a large part of south Bahia and northern Minas Gerais, and which is now in its 32nd year of existence. Despite the problem I manage to keep up with my neurological work during about fifty hours each week.
To recapitulate, the authors of this excellent article are probably right in their thesis that Dom Pedro II suffered from sleep apnea, but in the absence of eye witnesses of his sleeping time and patterns, there is the less likely possibility that he suffered from the problem discussed in this letter.
Arthur Harry Chapman
Vitória da Conquista
- 1. Doghrami K, Strohl KP. Sleep, sleep apnea. In The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. Rahway NJ: 2006:499-502, 1834-1843.
- 2. Chapman AH, Almeida SV, Reis MA. EEG: leitura e interpretação. Petrópolis: EPUB, 2006:75.
- 3. Becker B. Distúrbios do sono. Rio de Janeiro Editora, 1993.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
05 June 2009 -
Date of issue
June 2009
