Tooth Contact during Sleep: Association with Other Events

¹ Eastman Dental Dispensary, Rochester, N.Y.

An investigation was undertaken to determine the relationship between tooth contacts during sleep, the occurrence of rapid eye-movement periods, and electrical activity recorded from certain muscles and muscle groups.

Tooth contact in normal individuals and in bruxists may be associated with the lightening of sleep coincident with body movement. At such a time, reticular facilitation of the gamma-efferent system, producing hypertonicity of the masticatory muscles, is possible. However, multiple tooth contacts also occur during periods of rapid eye movements when reticular facilitation of the gamma-efferent system is absent. These latter contacts are most closely related to bruxism.