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The concept of sleep has evolved from that of the first philosophers such as Democritus, who defined it as “a small group of atoms leaving the body” to its present definition as “a readily reversible suspension of sensorimotor interaction with the environment, usually associated with recumbency and immobility”. The invention of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) by Hangs Berger in 1929 [] and the consequent development of polysomnography by Rechtschaffen and Kales in 1968 [] played a key role in the progress of sleep science. Nowadays, polysomnography is an essential tool for sleep studies. This field of research has grown rapidly in ambulatory patients. Nevertheless, probably due to the complexity of sleep exploration and the wide use of sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU), the incidence of sleep disorders in ICU patients has historically been underestimated. Sedation can carry the patient from a state of superficial artificial sleep to pharmacological coma, while physiological sleep is a state of rapidly reversible unconsciousness. Differentiation between sleep and sedation is, therefore, the first essential point.

The concept of sleep has evolved from that of the first philosophers such as Democritus, who defined it as “a small group of atoms leaving the body” to its present definition as “a readily reversible suspension of sensorimotor interaction with the environment, usually associated with recumbency and immobility”. The invention of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) by Hangs Berger in 1929 [] and the consequent development of polysomnography by Rechtschaffen and Kales in 1968 [] played a key role in the progress of sleep science. Nowadays, polysomnography is an essential tool for sleep studies. This field of research has grown rapidly in ambulatory patients. Nevertheless, probably due to the complexity of sleep exploration and the wide use of sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU), the incidence of sleep disorders in ICU patients has historically been underestimated. Sedation can carry the patient from a state of superficial artificial sleep to pharmacological coma, while physiological sleep is a state of rapidly reversible unconsciousness. Differentiation between sleep and sedation is, therefore, the first essential point.

The concept of sleep has evolved from that of the first philosophers such as Democritus, who defined it as “a small group of atoms leaving the body” to its present definition as “a readily reversible suspension of sensorimotor interaction with the environment, usually associated with recumbency and immobility”. The invention of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) by Hangs Berger in 1929 [] and the consequent development of polysomnography by Rechtschaffen and Kales in 1968 [] played a key role in the progress of sleep science. Nowadays, polysomnography is an essential tool for sleep studies. This field of research has grown rapidly in ambulatory patients. Nevertheless, probably due to the complexity of sleep exploration and the wide use of sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU), the incidence of sleep disorders in ICU patients has historically been underestimated. Sedation can carry the patient from a state of superficial artificial sleep to pharmacological coma, while physiological sleep is a state of rapidly reversible unconsciousness. Differentiation between sleep and sedation is, therefore, the first essential point.