Effects of lost sleep tend to linger
Sleeping more hours to make up for chronic lack of sleep, may not be enough to cure its negative effects, as neurobehavioral impairments linger, a study shows.
In the findings of the largest laboratory-based sleep-study restriction experiment, which were published in the August 1, 2010 issue of Sleep, researchers found that despite significant improvement in alertness and behavior after a night of recovery sleep, neurobehavioral impairments, such as delayed reaction time and slow attention span, do not fully recover.
Participants functioned normally after just one full night of sleep, however.
Researchers conducted the experiment on 159 adults, with a mean age of 30 years. After a night of ten hours of sleep, the participants were restricted to four hours of sleep for five nights.
The following night, 142 participants were allowed randomized doses of recovery sleep ranging from 0-10 hours, with the other seventeen spending 10 hours in bed for the duration of the experiment.
While awake, all participants were to complete a 30-minute computer assessment every two hours.
"Recovery of alertness dimensions was remarkably dependent on the duration of the recovery time in bed," the Telegraph quoted Dr. David Dinges, chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania, as saying.
"However, the sleep restriction was severe enough that recovery of alertness was not complete following a single night of extended sleep, indicating a residual sleep debt remained," Dr. Dinges, who had led the study, concluded.
Source: presstv.ir
Other links:
Obese moms risk lactation delay
Soda drinks up premature labor
