Institute of Medical Psychology, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Commun Biol. 2022 Jul 26;5(1):747. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03643-y.
Sleep is important for normal brain and body functioning, and for this, slow-wave sleep (SWS), the deepest stage of sleep, is assumed to be especially relevant. Previous studies employing methods to enhance SWS have focused on central nervous components of this sleep stage. However, SWS is also characterized by specific changes in the body periphery, which are essential mediators of the health-benefitting effects of sleep. Here we show that enhancing SWS in healthy humans using hypnotic suggestions profoundly affects the two major systems linking the brain with peripheral body functions, i.e., the endocrine and the autonomic nervous systems (ANS). Specifically, hypnotic suggestions presented at the beginning of a 90-min afternoon nap to promote subsequent SWS strongly increased the release of growth hormone (GH) and, to a lesser extent, of prolactin and aldosterone, and shifted the sympathovagal balance towards reduced sympathetic predominance. Thus, the hypnotic suggestions induced a whole-body pattern characteristic of natural SWS. Given that the affected parameters regulate fundamental physiological functions like metabolism, cardiovascular activity, and immunity, our findings open up a wide range of potential applications of hypnotic SWS enhancement, in addition to advancing our knowledge on the physiology of human SWS.
睡眠对于大脑和身体的正常功能至关重要，而慢波睡眠（SWS）作为睡眠的最深阶段，被认为尤为重要。之前采用增强 SWS 的方法的研究主要集中在这个睡眠阶段的中枢神经系统组成部分。然而，SWS 还具有身体外周的特定变化，这是睡眠带来的有益健康效果的重要介导因素。在这里，我们表明，在健康人类中使用催眠暗示来增强 SWS，会深刻影响将大脑与外周身体功能联系起来的两个主要系统，即内分泌系统和自主神经系统（ANS）。具体来说，在下午 90 分钟小睡开始时提出的催眠暗示，以促进随后的 SWS，强烈增加了生长激素（GH）的释放，在较小程度上也增加了催乳素和醛固酮的释放，并使交感神经-迷走神经平衡向交感神经优势降低的方向转移。因此，催眠暗示诱导了一种全身模式，这种模式具有自然 SWS 的特征。鉴于受影响的参数调节着新陈代谢、心血管活动和免疫等基本生理功能，我们的发现除了增进我们对人类 SWS 生理学的认识外，还为催眠 SWS 增强的广泛潜在应用开辟了道路。
