NEUROBEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF PARTIAL SLEEP DEPRIVATION

睡眠在维持健康、最佳清醒功能方面的作用，由于疾病、衰老、疼痛、抑郁和生活方式导致的睡眠损失而受到损害。数以百万计的人由于医疗或生活方式原因而经历的最普遍的一种睡眠缺失形式是部分睡眠剥夺（PSD）。该项目旨在确定对困倦敏感的清醒神经行为功能如何受到慢性PSD的影响。一个基本的未解决的问题是慢性PSD的数量和时间，警觉性和清醒功能受到损害。本研究旨在确定慢性睡眠限制所导致的缺陷的性质和时间过程（跨越小时和天），以及它们在多大程度上反映了睡眠的稳态驱动和内源性昼夜节律起搏器之间的相互作用。该项目涉及第一个系统的实验室控制实验，研究14天PSD对神经行为和生理功能的影响。将进行一项随机对照试验，将三种PSD剂量（每天4小时、6小时、8小时）置于三个不同的昼夜节律阶段（0330小时、1130小时、1930小时的卧床时间偏移），从而产生九种情况，每种情况都暴露了不同的昼夜节律周期范围，以进行清醒的神经行为评估。共有180名健康成年人将在实验室进行为期20天的研究（每种情况20人），在此期间，他们将接受14天的睡眠限制。评估主要结果变量包括精神运动警觉性缺失、认知功能、工作记忆、脑电图警觉性、主观嗜睡和情绪。这项研究的结果将提供迫切需要的信息，以解决当前理论和应用方面非常关注的问题，包括与当前公共政策需要的数据特别相关，这些数据涉及安全敏感职业的人员每个工作日应该有多少小时可供睡眠，以及他们应该被允许连续工作的天数。

The role of sleep in maintaining healthy, optimal waking functions, is compromised by sleep loss from illness, aging, pain, depression, and life-style. The single most pervasive form of sleep loss experienced by millions of persons for either medical or lifestyle reasons is partial sleep deprivation (PSD). This project seeks to determine how waking neurobehavioral functions sensitive to sleepiness are affected by chronic PSD. A basic unresolved question is the amount and timing of chronic PSD at which alertness and waking function are compromised. This research is specifically aimed at establishing the nature and time course (across hours and days) of deficits engendered by chronic sleep restriction, and the extent to which they reflect an interaction between the homeostatic drive for sleep and the endogenous circadian pacemaker. The project involves the first systematic laboratory controlled experiments on the effects of 14 days of PSD on neurobehavioral and physiological functions. A randomized controlled trial will be performed in which three PSD dosages (4hr, 6 hr, 8 hr, per day) are placed at three different circadian phases (time-in-bed offset at 0330hr, 1130hr, 1930hr), thereby yielding nine conditions, each of which exposes a different range of the circadian cycle to waking neurobehavioral assessment. A total of 180 healthy adults will be studied (n=20 per condition) in the laboratory for 20 days each, during which time they will undergo 14 days of sleep restriction. Assessments will be made of key outcome variables including psychomotor vigilance lapses, cognitive functions, working memory, EEG alertness, subjective sleepiness, and mood. The results of this research will provide much-needed information on current issues of intense theoretical and applied concern including particular relevance to current public policy needs for data regarding the number of hours personnel in safety-sensitive occupations should have available each work day for sleep, and the number of consecutive days they should be allowed to work.