On the 100th anniversary of the discovery by Russian scientists of periodic phenomena and the phase activity of eye movements during sleep

For many decades, E. Aserinsky and N. Kleitman were considered to be the discoverers of the REM phase of sleep (the “rapid eye movements” sleep phase), who published the results of their research in 1953.

However, 70 years later, this fact was questioned, as it was discovered an article published in 1926, in which Russian scientists M.P. Denisova and N.L. Figurin for the first time in the world, not only very detailed descriptions of observations were presented, but also the results of recording respiratory rate, eye and eyelid movements, and general motor activity in the form of a graph (kimogram) in infants of different ages.

The authors noted the age-related dynamics of the processes occurring during sleep, dividing them into three periods: first – from birth to 1–2 months, second – from 1–2 months to 2 years, and third – from 2 years. The authors considered the second period, “with its wave-like pattern of sleep”, to be the most interesting “in terms of analysis”, as it most vividly reflected the dynamics of physiological processes during sleep. The discovery by Denisova and Figurin in 1926 of periodic processes during sleep, including the phase activity of eye movements with a period of about 50 minutes, respiration and general motor activity leaves no doubt about the priority of Russian scientists in detecting the “rapid eye movements” sleep phase (REM sleep) and crowns all the main stages of the development of Russian sleep research on at the global level, from the first scientific work in the world history in the field of sleep research, published by Prof.

M.M. Manaseina in 1892 up to I.N. Pigarev’s visceral theory of sleep.