Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
J Sleep Res. 2018 Aug;27(4):e12626. doi: 10.1111/jsr.12626. Epub 2017 Oct 30.
Bedtime is frequently delayed by many factors in life, and a homeostatic response to the delay may compensate partly for increased time awake and shortened sleep. Because sleep becomes shorter with age and women complain of disturbed sleep more often than men, age and sex differences in the homeostatic response to a delayed bedtime may modify the homeostatic response. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of late-night short-sleep (3 h with awakening at about 07:00 hours) on in-home recorded sleep in men and women in two age groups (20-30 and 65-75 years). Results (N = 59) showed that late-night short-sleep was associated with an increase in percentage of N3 sleep and a decrease in percentage of rapid eye movement sleep, as well as decreases in several measures of sleep discontinuity and rapid eye movement density. Men showed a smaller decrease in percentage of rapid eye movement sleep than women in response to late-night short-sleep, as did older individuals of both sexes compared with younger. Older men showed a weaker percentage of N3 sleep in response to late-night short-sleep than younger men. In general, men showed a greater percentage of rapid eye movement sleep and a lower percentage of N3 sleep than women, and older individuals showed a lower percentage of N3 sleep than younger. In particular, older men showed very low levels of percentage of N3 sleep. We conclude that older males show less of a homeostatic response to late-night short-sleep. This may be an indication of impaired capacity for recovery in older men. Future studies should investigate if this pattern can be linked to gender-associated differences in morbidity and mortality.
睡眠时间常常会受到生活中诸多因素的影响，人体可能会对此做出适应性反应，部分弥补因入睡时间推迟而导致的清醒时间延长和睡眠时间缩短。由于随着年龄的增长，睡眠会逐渐缩短，且女性抱怨睡眠质量不佳的情况比男性更为常见，因此，入睡时间推迟后人体的适应性反应可能会因年龄和性别而有所不同。本研究旨在探究深夜短眠（3 小时，约 07：00 时醒来）对两个年龄段（20-30 岁和 65-75 岁）男性和女性的居家睡眠记录的影响。结果（N=59）表明，深夜短眠与 N3 睡眠比例增加和快速眼动睡眠比例减少有关，同时还会导致睡眠中断和快速眼动密度的几个测量值降低。与女性相比，男性对深夜短眠的快速眼动睡眠比例下降幅度较小，而且两性中老年人的下降幅度均小于年轻人。与年轻男性相比，老年男性对深夜短眠的 N3 睡眠比例下降幅度更小。总体而言，男性的快速眼动睡眠比例高于女性，N3 睡眠比例低于女性，而老年人的 N3 睡眠比例低于年轻人。特别是，老年男性的 N3 睡眠比例非常低。我们得出结论，与女性相比，老年男性对深夜短眠的适应性反应较小。这可能表明老年男性的恢复能力受损。未来的研究应调查这种模式是否与性别相关的发病率和死亡率差异有关。
