Introduction IT IS A common clinical impression that depressed patients obtain less sleep, experience early morning awakening, and complain of less restful sleep. Diaz-Guerrero et al5studied the sleep of six manic-depressive psychotics, depressive type, by recording their all-night electroencephalogram (EEG). They report that, after excluding the waking record time, the patients had twice as much low voltage recording of light sleep as controls, half as much spindles plus random, and more sleep depth changes. Oswald et al7studied the effect of heptabarbital on six depressed patients and six controls by recording for each the all-night EEG and electro-oculogram (EOG) for four successive nights. The drug was administered in 400 mg doses on two of the four nights. They report no abnormality in the sleep which was characteristic of this group of depressed patients other than excessive wakefulness, which was equally