Repeating patterns of sleep restriction and recovery: Do we get used to it?

Abstract

Despite its prevalence in modern society, little is known about the long-term impact of restricting sleep during the week and ‘catching up’ on weekends. This common sleep pattern was experimentally modeled with three weeks of 5 nights of sleep restricted to 4 hours followed by two nights of 8-hour recovery sleep. In an intra-individual design, 14 healthy adults completed both the sleep deprivation and an 8-hour control condition, and the subjective impact and the effects on physiological markers of stress (cortisol, the inflammatory marker IL-6, glucocorticoid receptor sensitivity) were assessed. Sleep restriction was not perceived to be subjectively stressful and some degree of resilience or resistance to the effects of sleep restriction was observed in subjective domains. In contrast, physiological stress response systems remain activated with repeated exposures to sleep loss and limited recovery opportunity. Morning IL-6 expression in monocytes was significantly increased during week 2 and 3 of sleep restriction, and remained increased after recovery sleep in week 2 (p<0.05) and week 3 (p<0.09). Serum cortisol showed a significantly dysregulated 24h-rhythm during weeks 1, 2, and 3 of sleep restriction, with elevated morning cortisol, and decreased cortisol in the second half of the night. Glucocorticoid sensitivity of monocytes was increased, rather than decreased, during the sleep restriction and sleep recovery portion of each week. These results suggest a disrupted interplay between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and inflammatory systems in the context of repeated exposure to sleep restriction and recovery. The observed dissociation between subjective and physiological responses may help explain why many individuals continue with the behavior pattern of restricting and recovering sleep over long time periods, despite a cumulative deleterious physiological effect.

Ad libitum Weekend Recovery Sleep Fails to Prevent Metabolic Dysregulation during a Repeating Pattern of Insufficient Sleep and Weekend Recovery Sleep

“…The effectiveness of scheduled weekend recovery sleep (i.e., experimentally controlled recovery sleep opportunities) as a strategy to mitigate adverse physiological consequences of insufficient sleep has been examined for whole-body insulin sensitivity, inflammatory proteins, and blood pressure [26][27][28][29][30]. Findings from these studies are mixed with evidence for and against improved physiological outcomes.…”

EEG Changes Accompanying Successive Cycles of Sleep Restriction With and Without Naps in Adolescents

“…Only one study to-date has investigated the physiological effects of repeated cycles of sleep restriction and recovery in healthy adults. 15 It found that stress responses were continually elevated throughout the sleep restriction cycles. It is still unclear how sleep architecture responds to repeated cycles of sleep restriction in adolescents.…”

Chronic sleep restriction differentially affects implicit biases toward food among men and women: preliminary evidence

“…The full list of inclusion and exclusion criteria are presented in Simpson et al . (). This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.…”

“…The study paradigm is described in detail in Simpson et al . (). During the rested sleep control condition, participants were provided with 8 h of enforced sleep opportunity per night (23:00–07:00 hours) for 3 weeks.…”