Impact of Sleep Restriction on Performance in Adults

Columbia University45 enrolled

Overview

The overall goal of this project is to look at the effects of long-term, sustained sleep restriction (SR) in adults, and assess the effects on mood and cognitive and physical performance.

Chronic Sleep Restriction (SR) is highly prevalent in today's modern society. Artificial light, portable electronic devices, and 24-h services have allowed individuals to remain active throughout the night, leading to reductions in sleep duration. SSD has been linked to obesity and our laboratory has been interested in establishing whether sleep could be a causal factor in the etiology of obesity. Given the increasing prevalence of obesity over the past 5 decades, coinciding with the marked reduction in sleep duration, further exploration into the role of sleep as a risk factor for obesity could provide additional ammunition in the fight to prevent further increases in the incidence of obesity. This study will be a randomized, crossover, outpatient SR study with 2 phases of 6 weeks each, with a 6 week wash-out period between the phases. Sleep duration in each phase will be the participant's regular bed- and wake times during the habitual sleep (HS) phase and HS minus 1.5 hours in the SR phase. During the HS phase, participants will be asked to follow a fixed bedtime routine based on their screening sleep schedule. During the SR phase, participants will be asked to keep their habitual wake time constant but delay their bedtime to achieve a reduction of 1.5 hours in total sleep time.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Sleep Obesity Sleep Restriction

Interventions

Sleep Restriction (SR)BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be asked to keep their habitual wake time constant but delay their bedtime to achieve a reduction of 1.5 hours in total sleep time. A delay in bedtimes was chosen rather than advancing wake-up time because it most closely reflects differences in sleep timing behavior between short and normal sleepers.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 20 YearsMax age: 75 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * BMI 25-29.9 kg/m2 * Have at least one obese parent * Habitually sleep 7-9 hours a night * Free of any current and past sleep and psychiatric disorders, including eating disorders, diabetes or Cardiovascular disease (CVD) (i.e., normal scores on: Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Questionnaire Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Berlin Questionnaire, Sleep Disorders Inventory Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Composite Scale of Morningness/Eveningness, Three Factor Eating Questionnaire) * All racial/ethnic groups Exclusion Criteria: * Smokers (any cigarettes or ex-smoker \< 3 years) * Neurological, medical or psychiatric disorder * Diabetics * Eating and/or sleep disorders * Contraindications for MRI scanning * Travel across time zones within 4 weeks * History of drug and alcohol abuse * Shift worker (or rotating shift worker) * Caffeine intake \> 300 mg/d * Heavy equipment operators * Commercial long-distance drivers

Locations (1)

New York Nutrition Obesity Research Center

New York, New York, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Endpoint Fat Volume

Body composition (specifically fat volume) will be measured by MRI at baseline and endpoint.

Time frame: Week 6 (endpoint)

Secondary Outcomes

Energy Expenditure (EE)

EE is the amount of energy (or calories) that a person needs to carry out physical functions and will be assessed using Doubly Labeled Water (DLW), during the last 2 weeks of each sleep phase.

Time frame: Measured over 14 days at the end of each phase (weeks 5 and 6; endpoint)

Physical Activity

Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Time frame: Average over 6 weeks (measured daily)

Ghrelin

Average post-baseline values

Time frame: 6 weeks

Regional Brain Activation in Response to Food Stimuli

The primary aim of this outcome was to investigate brain activation in response to food stimuli after a six-week period of Adequate Sleep (AS) or mild Sleep Restriction (SR). To achieve this, the investigators contrasted neuronal responses to food and non-food stimuli at two time points (baseline and six weeks post-intervention/control). This contrast allowed the investigators to calculate the number of voxels activated during the view of food stimuli compared to the number of voxels activated during the view of non-food stimuli (food - non-food) under each condition (AS or SR). Regional brain activation is reported as the total number of voxels activated on the group contrast images (combination of all analyzed participants) of the neuronal response to food stimuli compared to non-food stimuli. For this analysis, voxels were considered activated if they survived Gaussian Random Field theory correction with a 2-tailed p \< 0.001 threshold when creating the group contrast images.

Time frame: Week 6

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.