Born J, Schenk U, Späth-Schwalbe E, Fehm H L
Innere Medizin I, Universität Ulm, F.R.G.
Biol Psychiatry. 1988 Nov;24(7):801-11. doi: 10.1016/0006-3223(88)90256-9.
Decreasing endogenous plasma cortisol levels during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep have been recently reported, suggesting a diminished or absent secretory activity of the adrenals during this period. On the other hand, episodes of light sleep (Stage 1) and intermittent wakefulness have been found to be associated with increasing plasma cortisol levels. The present experiments in 10 adult men were designed to examine whether or not REM sleep inhibits adrenocortical activity and if short periods of wakefulness increase nocturnal cortisol release. Somnopolygraphic recordings were obtained from each subject under three experimental sleep conditions: a baseline night, an REM deprivation night in which the subject's sleep was disturbed contingent upon the occurrence of REM, and a control night in which sleep was disturbed both during REM deprivation and non-REM (NREM) epochs, i.e., mostly during Stage 2 sleep. This last condition was introduced to distinguish the effects of REM deprivation from those of arousals that may per se act as stressful stimuli for cortisol release. Contrary to expectation, we found that both REM sleep deprivation and arousals in NREM epochs reduced rather than enhanced mean plasma cortisol levels as compared with baseline conditions. These findings do not support the hypothesis of an inhibitory effect of REM sleep on cortisol secretion, though present data do not refute this hypothesis. The awakenings, or the light sleep subsequent to sleep disturbance, appear to have no stimulatory effect on adrenocortical secretion. Awakenings during sleep at night may even reflect the activity of mechanisms inhibiting sleep-related increases in plasma cortisol concentration.
最近有报道称，快速眼动（REM）睡眠期间内源性血浆皮质醇水平会下降，这表明在此期间肾上腺的分泌活动减弱或缺失。另一方面，已发现浅睡眠阶段（第1阶段）和间歇性觉醒与血浆皮质醇水平升高有关。本实验以10名成年男性为对象，旨在研究REM睡眠是否会抑制肾上腺皮质活动，以及短时间觉醒是否会增加夜间皮质醇释放。在三种实验睡眠条件下对每位受试者进行多导睡眠图记录：一个基线夜晚、一个REM剥夺夜晚（在此期间，受试者的睡眠会因REM的出现而受到干扰），以及一个对照夜晚（在此期间，REM剥夺和非快速眼动（NREM）阶段的睡眠都会受到干扰，即主要在第2阶段睡眠期间）。引入最后一种条件是为了区分REM剥夺的影响与可能本身就作为皮质醇释放应激刺激的觉醒的影响。与预期相反，我们发现，与基线条件相比，REM睡眠剥夺和NREM阶段的觉醒都会降低而非提高平均血浆皮质醇水平。这些发现并不支持REM睡眠对皮质醇分泌具有抑制作用的假设，尽管现有数据也没有反驳这一假设。觉醒，或睡眠干扰后的浅睡眠，似乎对肾上腺皮质分泌没有刺激作用。夜间睡眠期间的觉醒甚至可能反映出抑制与睡眠相关的血浆皮质醇浓度升高的机制的活动。
