REM Sleep Iota Oscillations Across the Lifespan
- 1Paris Brain Institute
Abstract
Iota oscillations are a newly discovered marker of wakefulness and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. So far, iota in REM sleep has only been reported in the surface electroencephalography (EEG) of a small sample of young adults and in intracranial recordings of epileptic patients. Here, we investigated the presence of these oscillations in a large dataset (N=937) of high-density sleep EEG recordings from individuals 7 to 70 years old. We found that iota spectral peaks during REM sleep were between 25 and 40 Hz, slightly faster than in wake (25-35 Hz). Iota power was significantly associated with REM sleep architecture, increasing with both REM duration and across progressive sleep cycles. Iota peaks were observed in individuals of all ages, although the prevalence decreased gradually with age, from 88% in children to 44% in older adults. Most iota spectral peak properties (frequency, amplitude, timing, topography) likewise shifted with age. The most striking effect, however, was in bandwidth, such that children had narrow iota peaks, older adults had broad iota peaks, and 20-30 year olds could have either. It remains unclear whether narrowband and broadband iota are functionally equivalent. On shorter time scales (< 1 year), iota properties remained stable across measurements. Analyses of a separate dataset of monozygotic and dizygotic twins revealed high heritability of all iota peak properties except bandwidth. Overall, these results establish iota as a genetically determined trait-like marker of REM sleep with unique age-related changes. Iota oscillations open new avenues to investigate the interaction between sleep, genetics, development, and aging.
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BibTeX
@misc{snipes2026sleep,
title = {{REM Sleep Iota Oscillations Across the Lifespan}},
author = {S. Snipes and R. Cox and E. Krugliakova and S. Kurth and S. Leach and A. Markovic and V. Jaramillo and C. Volk and F. Pugin and I. Wilhelm and L. Tarokh and E. van Someren and R. Huber and T. Andrillon},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.14.759205},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759205v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - REM Sleep Iota Oscillations Across the Lifespan
AU - S. Snipes
AU - R. Cox
AU - E. Krugliakova
AU - S. Kurth
AU - S. Leach
AU - A. Markovic
AU - V. Jaramillo
AU - C. Volk
AU - F. Pugin
AU - I. Wilhelm
AU - L. Tarokh
AU - E. van Someren
AU - R. Huber
AU - T. Andrillon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.14.759205
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759205v1
AB - Iota oscillations are a newly discovered marker of wakefulness and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. So far, iota in REM sleep has only been reported in the surface electroencephalography (EEG) of a small sample of young adults and in intracranial recordings of epileptic patients. Here, we investigated the presence of these oscillations in a large dataset (N=937) of high-density sleep EEG recordings from individuals 7 to 70 years old. We found that iota spectral peaks during REM sleep were between 25 and 40 Hz, slightly faster than in wake (25-35 Hz). Iota power was significantly associated with REM sleep architecture, increasing with both REM duration and across progressive sleep cycles. Iota peaks were observed in individuals of all ages, although the prevalence decreased gradually with age, from 88% in children to 44% in older adults. Most iota spectral peak properties (frequency, amplitude, timing, topography) likewise shifted with age. The most striking effect, however, was in bandwidth, such that children had narrow iota peaks, older adults had broad iota peaks, and 20-30 year olds could have either. It remains unclear whether narrowband and broadband iota are functionally equivalent. On shorter time scales (< 1 year), iota properties remained stable across measurements. Analyses of a separate dataset of monozygotic and dizygotic twins revealed high heritability of all iota peak properties except bandwidth. Overall, these results establish iota as a genetically determined trait-like marker of REM sleep with unique age-related changes. Iota oscillations open new avenues to investigate the interaction between sleep, genetics, development, and aging.
ER -