The sleep of 13 chronic male schizophrenics was studied during a one-month trial of chlorpromazine and compared with one-month placebo periods. Electroencephalographic recordings were made only after the patients had been on chlorpromazine hydrochloride or a placebo for at least three weeks.
Sleep latency and awake time were significantly decreased on chlorpromazine while stage II, delta sleep, delta%, nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, REM activity, REM latency, and REM density were significantly increased. There were no significant changes in REM time, REM%, stage II%, and NREM%.