Chen Liang-En, Zhao An-Dong, Zhang Qing-Jun, Wu Feng, Ge Zhao-Li, Ge Hua, Zhan Hao
Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Aviation Medicine, Air Force, Beijing, 100142 China.
Mil Med Res. 2016 Mar 1;3:5. doi: 10.1186/s40779-016-0075-4. eCollection 2016.
Military operation personnel often suffer from sleep difficulty because of their work requirements. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of zaleplon at two doses to induce afternoon-sleep under noise interference and its effects on psychomotor performance and vestibular function; we subsequently established the optimal dosage regimen for military operation personnel.
Twenty-two healthy young male volunteers were recruited for the study. Eight subjects took 10 mg or 15 mg of zaleplon and placebo alternately and then were exposed to noise. Changes in polysomnography (PSG) indices, including sleep latency (SL), sleep efficiency (SE) and sleep structure, were recorded after drug administration. After awakening, the volunteers' subjective judgments of sleep quality and sleepiness were measured. Eight volunteers underwent 3 psychomotor performance tests at a one-week interval, and the psychomotor performance tests were conducted before and after taking zaleplon and placebo. Six volunteers participated in the vestibular function test session, and parameters, including optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), vestibular ocular reflex (VOR), visual-vestibular ocular reflex (VVOR) and vestibular ocular reflex fixation suppression (VOR-Fix), were detected by the same experimental design as described above. The data of sleep observations were subjected to one-way variance analysis.
Compared with the placebo group, SL was shortened significantly, and the scores of subjective sleep quality and sleep depth were clearly increased in the zaleplon 10 mg group (P < 0.05). Moreover, the SE and the percent of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep were increased remarkably in the zaleplon 15 mg group (P < 0.01). Furthermore, the SE, percent of REM sleep and scores of subjective sleep depth in the zaleplon 15 mg group were significantly higher than in the zaleplon 10 mg group (P < 0.05). The psychomotor performance did not change significantly after ingestion of 10 mg or 15 mg of zaleplon, whereas the OKN and VOR gains were lower in the two dose groups of zaleplon (P < 0.05) and restored to normal 3 h after drug ingestion.
Zaleplon is an ideal hypnotic for military personnel, and its hypnotic efficiency is dose-related under noise interference; a 15 mg dose of zaleplon could provide significantly better sleep than a 10 mg dose of zaleplon.
军事行动人员常因工作需求而睡眠困难。在本研究中，我们调查了两种剂量的扎来普隆在噪声干扰下诱导午睡的疗效及其对精神运动性能和前庭功能的影响；随后为军事行动人员确定了最佳给药方案。
招募22名健康年轻男性志愿者参与本研究。8名受试者交替服用10毫克或15毫克扎来普隆及安慰剂，然后暴露于噪声环境中。给药后记录多导睡眠图（PSG）指标的变化，包括睡眠潜伏期（SL）、睡眠效率（SE）和睡眠结构。醒来后，测量志愿者对睡眠质量和困倦程度的主观判断。8名志愿者每隔一周进行3次精神运动性能测试，精神运动性能测试在服用扎来普隆和安慰剂前后进行。6名志愿者参加前庭功能测试环节，通过与上述相同的实验设计检测包括视动性眼震（OKN）、前庭眼反射（VOR）、视前庭眼反射（VVOR）和前庭眼反射注视抑制（VOR-Fix）等参数。睡眠观察数据进行单因素方差分析。
与安慰剂组相比，扎来普隆10毫克组的SL显著缩短，主观睡眠质量和睡眠深度评分明显提高（P<0.05）。此外，扎来普隆15毫克组的SE和快速眼动（REM）睡眠百分比显著增加（P<0.01）。此外，扎来普隆15毫克组的SE、REM睡眠百分比和主观睡眠深度评分显著高于扎来普隆10毫克组（P<0.05）。服用10毫克或15毫克扎来普隆后精神运动性能无显著变化，而扎来普隆两个剂量组的OKN和VOR增益较低（P<0.05），服药后3小时恢复正常。
扎来普隆是军事人员理想的催眠药物，在噪声干扰下其催眠效果与剂量相关；15毫克剂量的扎来普隆比10毫克剂量的扎来普隆能提供明显更好的睡眠。
