NEUROBEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF PARTIAL SLEEP DEPRIVATION

本项目旨在确定部分睡眠剥夺（PSD）如何影响清醒时的神经行为功能（睡眠倾向、认知表现、嗜睡和情绪）。由于医疗、精神和睡眠障碍以及社会需求（工作、家庭、旅行），数以百万计的人每天都经历着严重的公共卫生问题。尽管PSD非常普遍，但关于夜间睡眠持续时间和PSD会导致白天嗜睡、无意识睡眠发作、表现不佳的天数的科学研究却很少——这些信息对于确定可能导致事故（如机动车）的PSD水平至关重要。在一项初步研究中，我们制定了一项研究PSD的方案，并证明了一套神经行为测量对1周睡眠限制的敏感性。利用这种方法，一项使用独立小组的随机对照试验开始了，以测试人们最常见的睡眠限制类型对清醒功能的影响。本研究的目的是确定连续14个晚上，当睡眠处于不同的昼夜节律阶段时，将夜间睡眠时间限制在每晚4.0小时、6.0小时和8.0小时（对照组），所产生的神经行为功能累积清醒变化的性质。在家中进行7-14天的监测以确保他们有稳定的睡眠/觉醒周期后，受试者将连续20天住在CRC的住院研究单元，在此期间监测他们的睡眠和清醒神经行为功能。在8-10小时/夜的3个基准日之后，受试者将在接下来的14天内被随机分配到三种睡眠限制条件之一（4、6、8小时/夜），随后是3天的恢复性睡眠（8小时/夜）。在两周的睡眠限制期间，比较三组在不同昼夜节律阶段的睡眠多导睡眠图和清醒神经行为功能的变化。

This project seeks to determine how waking neurobehavioral functions (sleep propensity, cognitive performance, sleepiness, and mood) are affected by partial sleep deprivation (PSD). PSD has been identified as a serious public health problem being experienced daily by millions of people as a result of medical, psychiatric, and sleep disorders, as well as social demands (work, family, travel). Although highly prevalent, little scientific work has been done on the nightly duration of sleep and number of days of PSD that will lead to daytime sleepiness, involuntary sleep episodes, performance failures-- information that is essential to determining the level of PSD that could result n accidents (e.g., motor vehicle). In a preliminary study, we developed a protocol for studying PSD and demonstrated the sensitivity of a set of neurobehavioral measures to sleep restriction over 1 week. Utilizing this approach, a randomized control trial using independent groups was initiated to test the effecs on waking function of the types of sleep restriction most commonly experienced by people. The purpose of this study is to determine the nature of the cumulative waking changes in neurobehavioral functions engendered by restricting nocturnal sleep to 4.0 hrs, 6.0 hrs, and 8.0 hrs (control) per night for 14 consecutive nights, when the sleep is placed at different circadian phases. Following a 7-14 day period at home, during which time the subjects are monitored to ensure they have a stable sleep/wake cycle, subjects will live in the Inpatient Study Unit of the CRC for 20 consecutive days, during which time their sleep and waking neurobehavioral functions are monitored. Following 3 baseline days of 8-10 hr sleep/night, subjects will be randomly assigned to one of the three sleep restriction conditions (4,6,8 hr/night) for the next 14 days, followed by 3 days of recovery sleep (8 hr/night). Changes in sleep polysomnograpy and waking neurobehavioral functions at different circadian phases across the 2-week period of sleep restriction are compared among the three groups.