Repeated Challenge of Insufficient Sleep: Endothelial Effects

Beth Israel Lahey Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Repeated Short Sleep Schedule

Treatments: Behavioral: repeated cycles of short sleep

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT01523535

2010P000365

R01HL106782 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The 24-hour-a-day, 7-day a week, work-world arrived within our lifetimes, and is here to stay. Americans are working more and more, frequently at multiple jobs. The pattern of short sleep during the week followed by attempts to recover on the weekend is in common practice, but we know little of the associated health risks. What is the cost in terms of increasing known risk markers for cardiovascular disease, of repeated nights of insufficient sleep, and is this cost compounded with repetition, without adequate recovery? Evidence is accumulating to suggest that short sleep duration is linked to the development of metabolic and inflammation-associated diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. Mechanisms involved in the development of cardiovascular disease include impaired vascular function and inflammation. The current proposal is designed to investigate the effects of repeated periods of short nocturnal sleep duration in 4 cycles (each cycle consisting of 3 nights of 4 hours of sleep opportunity per night), and each cycle of short sleep followed by a single night of recovery sleep. Vascular reactivity will be assessed using brachial artery flow mediated dilation, and microcirculatory vasodilation will be assessed using perfusion imaging techniques. The dependence of IL-6 and sVCAM-1 as measured in peripheral circulation, on vascular function, will also be investigated.

Full description

Due to work, family, social and community obligations, millions of Americans cut back on sleep for several nights in a row before having an opportunity to catch up. When the opportunity does arise, it may only be for a single night, before the cycle of insufficient sleep repeats. This study investigated what happens to human biology when insufficient sleep becomes chronic and opportunities for recovery sleep are intermittent. It also investigated recovery sleep itself, and the biological processes involved in reversing the effects of an accumulated sleep deficit due to insufficient sleep duration.

Enrollment: 168 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 25 to 55 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy volunteers
• Regular sleep-wake schedule

Exclusion criteria

• Diseases or medical conditions, including sleep disorders
• Current smoking
• Pregnant or nursing
• Recent time zone travel or shift work
• Regular medication use
• High blood pressure

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

---

168 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

normal sleep

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Subjects have 8 hours of sleep opportunity per night

Treatment:

Behavioral: repeated cycles of short sleep

cycles of sleep restriction

Experimental group

Description:

subjects are exposed to bouts of reduced sleep duration. The sleep loss is the intervention (experimental challenge).

Treatment:

Behavioral: repeated cycles of short sleep