Researchers evaluate links between chronic sleep insufficiency and neurobehavioral performance in humans. Sleep is important for many physiological processes, including metabolism and immune function. Andrew McHill and colleagues examined how chronic sleep insufficiency affects reaction time performance and subjective measures of alertness and sleepiness in 17 participants, 20-34 years of age. The participants were randomized to a control or chronic sleep-restricted inpatient sleep-wake schedule that lasted 32 days. The protocol included 20-hour cycles that enabled short sleep episodes lasting approximately 5 hours as well as short waking episodes lasting approximately 15 hours. The protocol also desynchronized the sleep-wake cycle from circadian rhythms. Using statistical modeling and assessments of participant vigilance performance and self-reported alertness during wakefulness, the authors found that chronically short sleep duration, even without extended wakefulness, was associated with increased neurobehavioral reaction time performance. Additionally, the behavioral impairments were also expressed during circadian times promoting daytime arousal in the participants. Moreover, chronic sleep loss did not uniformly decrease self-reported alertness, suggesting dissociation between objective performance and subjective alertness measures in the participants. The findings highlight the importance of sleep in humans, according to the authors.
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Article #17-06694: "Chronic sleep curtailment, even without extended (>16-h) wakefulness, degrades human vigilance performance," by Andrew W McHill, Joseph Hull, Wei Wang, Charles Czeisler, and Elizabeth Klerman.
MEDIA CONTACT: Elaine St. Peter, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA; tel: 617-525-6375; e-mail: <estpeter@bwh.harvard.edu>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences