Patients in a minimally conscious state remain capable of dreaming during their sleep

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - 11:31 in Psychology & Sociology

The question of sleep in patients with seriously altered states of consciousness has rarely been studied. Do ‘vegetative' patients (now also called patients in a state of unresponsive wakefulness) or minimally conscious state patients experience normal sleep? Up until now the distinction between the two patient populations had not been taken into account by electrophysiological studies. Yet if the vegetative state opens no conscious door onto the external world, the state of minimal consciousness for its part assumes a residual consciousness of the environment, certainly fluctuating but real.

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