Sleep Restriction and Energy Expenditure

Overview

Each 4-day period will follow the same protocol. Basically, for the entire study, we will prepare all of the subject's food and will require him or her to eat all of the food that we give at the times we tell them to eat. The subject will arrive at the hospital on the evening of day 1, and become inpatients. On day 2, the subject will be permitted to leave the hospital campus under the supervision of the research staff. On day 3, they will be required to stay in a small room called a metabolic chamber for 24 hours. This room measures how many calories you burn in one day. On day 4, we will measure the subject's energy expenditure in response to a breakfast meal. They will be given breakfast and the number of calories that they burn after that meal will be measured over a 6-hour period. Then the subject will be discharged at the end of the test. The 2 study periods will differ only in bedtimes and wakeup times. During one period, the subject will go to bed at 1 am and wake up at 5 am and during the other period they will go to bed at 11 pm and wake up at 7 am.

Sleeping metabolic rate will be measured using a metabolic chamber on the night of day 2. During day 3, 24-hour energy expenditure (including a second night of measurement) will be measured in the metabolic chamber. On this day, the participant will perform 2 bouts of physical activity on a stationary bicycle for 15 minutes each bout. This will give us a measurement of physical activity energy expenditure. On day 4, at 7 am, the participant will exit the metabolic chamber and will enter a different, smaller metabolic chamber for the measurement of energy expenditure in response to a meal. This measurement will start at approximately 8 am with assessment of the resting metabolic rate (45 minutes). The participant will then be given a high-fat meal replacement to consume over 10 minutes. Energy expenditure measurements continue in the metabolic chamber for a 6-hour period.