Monk T H, Buysse D J, Reynolds C F, Jarrett D B, Kupfer D J
Sleep and Chronobiology Center, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
J Gerontol. 1992 Jul;47(4):P221-7. doi: 10.1093/geronj/47.4.p221.
Nine healthy old (80+ years) men were compared with nine healthy young (20-30 years) men in a protocol that required 36 hours of continuous wakeful bedrest. Body temperature rhythm measurement confirmed that the old had as robust an endogenous circadian (approximately 24 hours) rhythm generation mechanism as the young. However, in measures of affect, activation, visual search speed, verbal reasoning speed, manual dexterity, and vigilance hit rate, the old showed a linear decline over the 36 hours of the vigil, with little of the superimposed 24-hour rhythmicity that was apparent in the young. Thus, separate from the endogenous rhythm generation processes, there appeared to be some attenuation with advanced age, which led to the relative absence of rhythmic expression in these mood and performance variables. Such attenuation might contribute to some of the sleep and performance problems reported by elderly adults.
在一项要求连续36小时卧床清醒的实验方案中，研究人员将9名健康的老年男性（80岁以上）与9名健康的年轻男性（20至30岁）进行了比较。体温节律测量结果证实，老年人拥有与年轻人一样强大的内源性昼夜节律（约24小时）生成机制。然而，在情感、激活度、视觉搜索速度、语言推理速度、手部灵巧度和警觉命中率等测量指标上，老年人在36小时的警觉期内呈线性下降，几乎没有年轻人身上明显的叠加24小时节律性。因此，除了内源性节律生成过程外，随着年龄增长似乎还存在某种衰减，这导致这些情绪和表现变量中相对缺乏节律性表达。这种衰减可能是导致老年人报告的一些睡眠和表现问题的原因之一。
