ABSTRACT
Serious climbers, trekkers, and casual travelers to high altitude are commonly impressed with the extent to which the experience is marred by restless and nonrefreshing sleep. The subjective assessment is usually of frequent awakenings with a sense of suffocation. There is also a subjective impression of very little time spent asleep, which it turns out is only partially correct. Although once viewed as an indication of altitude maladaptation, current evidence suggests that this sleep disturbance may instead be an unfortunate byproduct of effective general adaptation. In this chapter we review the nature of disturbed sleep at altitude with attention to mechanisms, functional consequences, and therapeutic aspects.
