Sleep disturbance is a common complaint among patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stres disorder (PTSD). Polysomnography is one of objective methods used to better understand the pathophysiology of PTSD. But consistent results of polysomnography have not been obtained so far.

The aim of this study is to investigate sleep structure and the relationship between sleep variables and clinical symptoms in adult male PTSD patients with combat trauma, with or without comorbid psychiatric disorder and without any medication.

30 PTSD patients and 19 healthy subjects exhibit similar characteristics in terms of age and sex were included in the study. Two consecutive overnight polysomnographic sleep study were performed to investigate sleep patterns.

In this study we found that compared with normal controls, PTSD patients exhibited difficulty in starting sleep, reduced sleep efficiency, decreased total sleep time, prolonged sleep latency, increased Stage-1 sleep, increased REM density and REM sleep, increased phasic EMG activity percentage. Also, comorbid psychiatric disorders accompanying PTSD affected the structure of sleep and there was a significant relationships between symptom severity and sleep variables.

Althouh the relationship between symptom severity and sleep parameters was found significant, there was no relationship between the changes of sleep parameters and shape of the traumatic event, elapsed time after injury and deterioration in the integrity of the body. In the PTSD patients we observed disturbed sleep patterns (Sleep continuity, sleep structure, REM sleep) which support the finding that these patients are in an arousal state even at night.