0199 Chronic Sleep Debt In Soldiers Is Exacerbated By Mission Training: An Assessment Of Subjective Sleep Characteristics

Abstract Chronic sleep loss is associated with escalating declines in vigilant attention across days of sleep restriction. However, studies exceeding 2 weeks of chronic sleep loss are scarce, and the cognitive performance outcomes assessed are limited. We assessed the effects of 6 weeks of chronic sleep restriction on a range of cognitive domains in 15 high-performing individuals (38.5 ± 8.2 years, 6 women) confined to small space in groups of 4. Sleep opportunities were limited to 5 h on weekdays and 8 h on weekends. Individual sleep–wake patterns were recorded with actigraphy. Neurobehavioral performance was assessed in evenings with Cognition, a computerized battery of ten tests assessing a range of cognitive domains. There were some small to moderate effects of increasing sleep debt relative to pre-mission baseline, with decreases in accuracy across cognitive domains (standardized β = –0.121, p = 0.001), specifically on tests of spatial orientation (β = –0.289, p = 0.011) and vigilant attention (β = –0.688, p < 0.001), which were not restored by two nights of weekend recovery sleep. Cognitive and subjective decrements occurred despite occasional daytime napping in breach of study protocol, evening testing around the circadian peak, and access to caffeine before 14:00. Sensorimotor speed, spatial learning and memory, working memory, abstraction and mental flexibility, emotion identification, abstract reasoning, cognitive throughput, and risk decision making were not significantly affected by sleep debt. Taken together with modest lower subjective ratings of happiness and healthiness, these findings underline the importance of sufficient sleep, on both an acute and chronic basis, for performance in selected cognitive domains and subjective wellbeing in operationally relevant environments.

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Actigraph Estimates of the Sleep of Australian Midwives

Biological Research For Nursing ◽

10.1177/1099800411422249 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 191-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Rebecca Tremaine ◽

Jillian Dorrian ◽

Jessica Paterson ◽

Annabelle Neall ◽

Ellie Piggott ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sleep Quality ◽

Sleep Disturbances ◽

Night Shift ◽

Sleep Onset ◽

Subjective Sleep Quality ◽

Subjective Sleep ◽

Metropolitan Hospital ◽

Shift Schedules ◽

Night Shifts ◽

Chronic Sleep

Midwives often work night and rotating shift schedules, which can lead to sleep disturbances, increased fatigue, and greater likelihood of accidents or errors. This study investigated the sleep of midwives ( n = 17) in an Australian metropolitan hospital. Midwives completed work and sleep logbooks and wore wrist actigraphs for 28 days. Midwives worked combinations of morning, afternoon, and/or night shifts on constant ( n = 6) or rotating schedules ( n = 11). They obtained less than recommended amounts of sleep, getting only 6–7 hr per 24-hr period. Morning shifts were associated with the lowest sleep durations, lowest subjective sleep quality, and highest postsleep fatigue ratings. Despite the significantly higher amount of wake after sleep onset (51 min), the sleep before afternoon shifts had significantly lower postsleep fatigue ratings and was rated as significantly higher quality than sleep before other shifts or days off. Those who were married or living with a partner reported significantly more sleep and lower postsleep fatigue than those who were separated or divorced ( p < .05). Seventy-one percent of midwives took naps, primarily before night shifts, with nearly 40% of nightshifts preceded by a nap. Average nap durations were nearly 1.5 hr. Midwives reported feeling moderately to very physically or mentally exhausted on 22–50% of all shifts and days off. Exhaustion was most common on night shift. This study suggests that midwives may be suffering from chronic sleep loss and as a consequence may be at risk of impairments in functioning that accompany fatigue.

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One week of chronic sleep debt does not affect decision-making processes in a mouse version of the Iowa Gambling Task

10.1101/691246 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Elsa Pittaras ◽

Sylvie Granon ◽

Arnaud Rabat

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Iowa Gambling Task ◽

Compensatory Mechanism ◽

Gambling Task ◽

Sleep Debt ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Set Up ◽

High Level ◽

Chronic Sleep

SummarySocio-professional pressures push people to sleep less which leads to chronic sleep debt (CSD) for a significant percentage of the population. Although the health consequences of CSD are well known, research shows that high-level cognitive processes in humans are more affected by acute sleep debt (ASD) rather than CSD (Drake et al., 2001). We have previously shown that ASD has deleterious effects on decision-making in mice and that some mice were more sensitive to ASD than others (Pittaras et al., 2018) by using a rodent version of the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara et al., 1994). In this study, we showed that, as in humans, CSD has fewer effects on decision-making compared to ASD. We hypothesize that this observation was due to the set-up of a compensatory mechanism.

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A unique, fast-forwards rotating schedule with 12-h long shifts prevents chronic sleep debt

Chronobiology International ◽

10.3109/07420528.2015.1113986 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 98-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Dorothee Fischer ◽

Céline Vetter ◽

Christoph Oberlinner ◽

Sven Wegener ◽

Till Roenneberg

Keyword(s):

Sleep Debt ◽

Chronic Sleep

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Identifying and validating blood mRNA biomarkers for acute and chronic insufficient sleep in humans: a machine learning approach

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsy186 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Emma E Laing ◽

Carla S Möller-Levet ◽

Derk-Jan Dijk ◽

Simon N Archer

Keyword(s):

Age Groups ◽

Sleep Loss ◽

Cellular Stress Response ◽

Protein Activity ◽

Insufficient Sleep ◽

Circadian Phase ◽

Protein Ubiquitination ◽

Sleep Debt ◽

The Unfolded Protein Response ◽

Chronic Sleep

Abstract Acute and chronic insufficient sleep are associated with adverse health outcomes and risk of accidents. There is therefore a need for biomarkers to monitor sleep debt status. None are currently available. We applied elastic net and ridge regression to transcriptome samples collected in 36 healthy young adults during acute total sleep deprivation and following 1 week of either chronic insufficient (<6 hr) or sufficient sleep (~8.6 hr) to identify panels of mRNA biomarkers of sleep debt status. The size of identified panels ranged from 9 to 74 biomarkers. Panel performance, assessed by leave-one-subject-out cross-validation and independent validation, varied between sleep debt conditions. Using between-subject assessments based on one blood sample, the accuracy of classifying “acute sleep loss” was 92%, but only 57% for classifying “chronic sleep insufficiency.” A reasonable accuracy for classifying “chronic sleep insufficiency” could only be achieved by a within-subject comparison of blood samples. Biomarkers for sleep debt status showed little overlap with previously identified biomarkers for circadian phase. Biomarkers for acute and chronic sleep loss also showed little overlap but were associated with common functions related to the cellular stress response, such as heat shock protein activity, the unfolded protein response, protein ubiquitination and endoplasmic reticulum-associated protein degradation, and apoptosis. This characteristic response of whole blood to sleep loss can further aid our understanding of how sleep insufficiencies negatively affect health. Further development of these novel biomarkers for research and clinical practice requires validation in other protocols and age groups.

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