No quick remedy to chronic sleep loss
Source: Agencies |
January 15, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE night of good sleep is not enough to recover from chronic sleep deficit, which over time hinders a person's ability to stay alert and attentive, researchers in the United States said on Wednesday.
Many nights of too little sleep when the body's rhythm says it is time to snooze have cumulative detrimental effects on how a person performs and could be a safety risk, the researchers wrote in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
"Insufficient sleep over multiple sleep-wake cycles causes performance to deteriorate much faster for every additional hour we spend awake, particularly during the biological night," lead author Dr Daniel Cohen of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston said.
On average, a person needs about eight hours a night to preserve performance, said Cohen, a neurologist. Acute sleep loss is being awake for more than 24 hours in a row and chronic sleep loss is getting only four to seven hours of sleep per night, he said.
Cohen's team tracked nine healthy volunteers - five men and four women - to see what effect a combination of acute sleep loss, chronic sleep loss and biological sleep rhythm might have on their ability to function.
The researchers found that while most participants caught up on acute sleep loss with a single night of 10 hours sleep, those with chronic sleep loss showed deteriorating performance for each hour spent awake.
The volunteers were kept in a hospital for 38 days and lived on various sleep cycles. They were tested every four hours to measure alertness and attentiveness.
Many nights of too little sleep when the body's rhythm says it is time to snooze have cumulative detrimental effects on how a person performs and could be a safety risk, the researchers wrote in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
"Insufficient sleep over multiple sleep-wake cycles causes performance to deteriorate much faster for every additional hour we spend awake, particularly during the biological night," lead author Dr Daniel Cohen of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston said.
On average, a person needs about eight hours a night to preserve performance, said Cohen, a neurologist. Acute sleep loss is being awake for more than 24 hours in a row and chronic sleep loss is getting only four to seven hours of sleep per night, he said.
Cohen's team tracked nine healthy volunteers - five men and four women - to see what effect a combination of acute sleep loss, chronic sleep loss and biological sleep rhythm might have on their ability to function.
The researchers found that while most participants caught up on acute sleep loss with a single night of 10 hours sleep, those with chronic sleep loss showed deteriorating performance for each hour spent awake.
The volunteers were kept in a hospital for 38 days and lived on various sleep cycles. They were tested every four hours to measure alertness and attentiveness.
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