A study (#0473) that will be presented later this morning as a poster reports that caffeine use prevents increased risk taking after 75 hours of total sleep deprivation.
The study at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research involved 25 healthy adults between 20 and 35 years of age who were deprived of sleep for three nights. Twelve participants received 200 mg caffeine gum bi-hourly from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. each morning (for a total of 800 mg per morning); 13 participants received identical placebo gum.
A behavioral task of risky behavior was administered after 51 hours of wakefulness and again after 75 hours of sleep deprivation. Results show that risk taking was unaffected in the placebo group after 51 hours, but increased significantly by 75 hours.
The caffeine group remained unchanged at both time points and was significantly less risky than the placebo group at 75 hours. The study suggests that extreme sleep deprivation may cause individuals to reach a “breaking point” at which they are less likely to inhibit risky behavior.
You can download the SLEEP 2009 abstract supplement as an 11 MB file in PDF format.
Showing posts with label sleep deprivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep deprivation. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sleep & Growing Older
Three studies that will be presented later this morning as posters shed light on issues related to sleep in older adults.
A study (#0363) involving Sleep Heart Health Study participants used direct measures of sleep fragmentation to show that increases in specific sleep stage transitions during the night are associated with higher mortality risk. This association was found in middle-aged and older adults who had more objectively measured wake to non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep transitions per hour of sleep, and in participants who had more NREM to wake transitions. Over the average follow-up period of eight years, 854 of the 5,614 participants died (15.2 percent).
A study (#0373) involving a national sample of older Americans shows that more than 55 percent reported sleeping for an average of seven hours or less per night during the past month. But only 18 percent reported that they “often” or “almost always” feel “unrested during the day.” The average age of the 1,570 participants was 71.9 years.
Another study (#0420) reports that older adults (between 59 and 82 years of age) showed more resiliency to total sleep deprivation than younger adults (between 19 and 38 years of age) on a range of measures of cognitive performance. Participants completed three cognitive tasks before and after sleep deprivation lasting 12 hours and 36 hours. For all three tasks, young adults significantly declined during total sleep deprivation while older adults did not change significantly.
You can download the SLEEP 2009 abstract supplement as an 11 MB file in PDF format.
A study (#0363) involving Sleep Heart Health Study participants used direct measures of sleep fragmentation to show that increases in specific sleep stage transitions during the night are associated with higher mortality risk. This association was found in middle-aged and older adults who had more objectively measured wake to non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep transitions per hour of sleep, and in participants who had more NREM to wake transitions. Over the average follow-up period of eight years, 854 of the 5,614 participants died (15.2 percent).
A study (#0373) involving a national sample of older Americans shows that more than 55 percent reported sleeping for an average of seven hours or less per night during the past month. But only 18 percent reported that they “often” or “almost always” feel “unrested during the day.” The average age of the 1,570 participants was 71.9 years.
Another study (#0420) reports that older adults (between 59 and 82 years of age) showed more resiliency to total sleep deprivation than younger adults (between 19 and 38 years of age) on a range of measures of cognitive performance. Participants completed three cognitive tasks before and after sleep deprivation lasting 12 hours and 36 hours. For all three tasks, young adults significantly declined during total sleep deprivation while older adults did not change significantly.
You can download the SLEEP 2009 abstract supplement as an 11 MB file in PDF format.
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