THERMOREGULATORY FUNCTION OF SLOW-WAVE SLEEP AND REM SLEEP

本项目旨在研究可能的体温调节功能 睡眠和睡眠阶段。有相当多的证据表明慢波 睡眠，这是普遍的第一部分睡眠，是与一个 降低体温的过程。与一种可能的 降温功能，加热可增强慢波睡眠 在睡觉之前。此外，表现出麻木或冬眠的动物 通过慢波睡眠进入这些状态。因为许多过程 在快速眼动睡眠期间产生的热量在中枢神经系统中， 假设REM睡眠具有产热功能， 从睡眠的浅麻木（REM睡眠是普遍存在的， 睡眠的最后一部分）。基于快速眼动睡眠是一种受调节的 CNS产热的一种形式，我们预测， 睡眠会增加快速眼动睡眠，而加热会减少它。 10个正常人参加了一项实验， 前额一次加热，另一次冷却， 一整晚的睡眠，而睡眠脑电图和直肠，鼓膜，眼睑， 连续监测前额和躯干皮肤温度。加热 冷却分别升高和降低前额和眼睑 温度，正如预期的那样。没有一致的影响加热或 在任何一个睡眠阶段降温。 在这个实验中，我们还寻找了可能的影响， 睡眠纺锤波我们检查了睡眠纺锤波，因为脑电活动 由该标签指定的与电信号的描述匹配， 已知介导温度调节控制器系统对 热效应器系统。符合可能的反监管 在体温调节系统的反应中，纺锤体的频率要高得多， 在冷却条件下比在加热条件下低。考虑到 加热和冷却程序对所有人的负面影响 睡眠生理学的其他方面， 纺锤体更加引人注目。 对慢波睡眠和快速眼动睡眠缺乏影响并不排除 在这些睡眠阶段的体温调节作用。在此应用的刺激 实验可能太弱，无法引起反应，或者它可能与 他们的行动方式。

This project is designed to investigate possible thermoregulatory functions of sleep and sleep stages. There is considerable evidence that slow wave sleep, which is prevalent in the first part of sleep, is associated with a process that down-regulates body temperature. Consistent with a possible temperature-lowering function, slow-wave sleep can be augmented by heating prior to sleep. Furthermore, animals that exhibit torpor or hibernation enter these states through slow-wave sleep. Because many of the processes that occur during REM sleep produce heat in the central nervous system, we hypothesized that REM sleep has a thermogenic function associated with emergence from the shallow torpor of sleep (REM sleep is prevalent in the last part of sleep). Based on the hypothesis that REM sleep is a regulated form of CNS thermogenesis, we predicted that cooling the forehead during sleep would increase REM sleep, and that heating would decrease it. Ten normal individuals participated in an experiment in which their forehead was heated on one occasion and cooled on another occasion during an entire night's sleep, while sleep EEG and rectal, tympanic, eyelid, forehead and trunk skin temperatures were continuously monitored. Heating and cooling raised and lowered, respectively, forehead and eyelid temperatures, as expected. There was no consistent effect of heating or cooling on any of the sleep stages. In this experiment we also looked for possible effects on the frequency of sleep spindles. We examined sleep spindles, because the electrical activity designated by this label matches the description of electrical signals that are known to mediate effects of thermoregulatory controller systems on thermoeffector systems. Consistent with a possible counteregulatory response in a thermoregulatory system, the frequency of spindles was much lower in the cooling than in the warming condition. In light of the uniformly negative effects of the heating and cooling procedures on all other aspects of sleep physiology that were measured, the effects on sleep spindles are all the more striking. The lack of effects on slow wave sleep and REM sleep do not rule out a thermoregulatory role for these sleep stages. The stimulus applied in this experiment may be too weak to elicit a response, or it may be irrelevant to their mode of action.