Hypnophrenia

HYPNOPHRENIA (from Greek hypnos-sleep and phren-soul), a distinctive form of psychiatric illness of the schizophrenia type, with predominance of sleep disturbance symptoms in the clinical picture. The term was proposed in 1924 by A.L. Epstein, who distinguishes two forms of H.: twilight and narrative type. The twilight form is characterized by alternation of bright and twilight periods. During the twilight period, patients, in addition to typical schizophrenia symptoms such as autism, disintegration, automatism, hallucinations, etc., exhibit a tendency to fall asleep extremely easily and to prolonged sleep; during the bright intervals, patient behavior is normal, though with some sometimes barely perceptible peculiarities. The verbal, or narrative form also proceeds through alternation of bright and morbid periods, with the latter characterized by speech excitement, primarily in the form of an unfolding chain of memories, with the same ease of falling asleep and tendency to prolonged sleep as in the twilight form. H. is accompanied by a number of pathological symptoms from the autonomic and extrapyramidal systems, as well as sensitivity, and mainly affects young individuals under twenty years of age.