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Sleep Spindle Density

Meaning

Sleep Spindle Density is a quantitative neurophysiological metric that measures the frequency of sleep spindles—brief bursts of oscillatory brain activity (11-16 Hz) visible on an electroencephalogram (EEG)—per unit of time during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, particularly stage N2. These spindles are critically involved in memory consolidation, the transfer of information from the hippocampus to the neocortex, and protecting the brain from external stimuli during sleep. A higher density is generally correlated with superior cognitive function and robust sleep-dependent learning capacity.