Laboratory of Sleep/Wake Neurobiology, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Department of Normal Physiology, Medical Institute of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russia.
Chronobiol Int. 2024 Jul;41(7):1046-1057. doi: 10.1080/07420528.2024.2378007. Epub 2024 Jul 15.
Although objectively measured characteristics of sleep efficiency and quality were found to be better in women than men, women more frequently than men suffer from poor or insufficient or non-restorative sleep. We explored this apparent paradox by testing the sex-associated differences in electroencephalographic (EEG) indicators of two opponent processes of sleep-wake regulation, the drives for sleep and wake. We tried to provide empirical support for the hypothesis that a stronger women's sleep drive can explain better objective characteristics of sleep quality in women than men, while a stronger women's wake drive can be an explanation of a higher frequency of sleep-related complaints in women than men. To our knowledge, this was the first attempt to examine the associations of sex with scores on the 1 and 2 principal components of the EEG spectrum that can serve as objective spectral EEG markers of the opponent drives for sleep and wake, respectively. The particular prediction was that, in women compared to men, not only the 1 principal component score but also the 2 principal component score could be higher (i.e. both drives could be stronger). In a sample of 80 university students (40 females), the EEG signals were recorded during 160 afternoon napping attempts (50 min or longer). The difference between male and female students in sleep latencies did not reach a statistically significant level. In accordance with our prediction, both principal component scores were found to be higher in female than in male students irrespective of sleep stage. It is likely that the influence of the wake drive is entirely overlooked in the polysomnographic studies due to the predominant contribution of the indicators of the sleep drive to the conventional objective characteristics of sleep quality. Therefore, a stronger women's sleep drive can be an explanation of women's better sleep quality in the results of polysomnographic studies. On the other hand, if a stronger women's wake drive can influence the perception of their sleep quality, this can explain their more frequent sleep-related complaints.
尽管女性的睡眠效率和质量等客观指标优于男性，但女性比男性更容易出现睡眠质量差、睡眠不足或睡眠无法恢复等问题。为了探究这一明显的悖论，我们测试了两种睡眠-觉醒调节对立过程（睡眠驱动力和觉醒驱动力）的脑电图（EEG）指标在性别上的差异，以检验女性睡眠驱动力较强可以解释为什么女性的睡眠质量比男性更好，而女性的觉醒驱动力较强可以解释为什么女性比男性更频繁地出现与睡眠相关的抱怨这一假说。据我们所知，这是首次尝试检查性别与 EEG 频谱的 1 个和 2 个主成分得分之间的关联，这些得分可以作为睡眠和觉醒驱动力的客观 EEG 频谱标志物。具体的预测是，与男性相比，女性的 1 个主成分得分和 2 个主成分得分都可能更高（即两种驱动力都更强）。在 80 名大学生（40 名女性）的样本中，在 160 次下午打盹尝试（50 分钟或更长时间）期间记录了 EEG 信号。男女学生的睡眠潜伏期差异没有达到统计学显著水平。与我们的预测一致，无论睡眠阶段如何，女性学生的两个主成分得分都高于男性学生。由于睡眠驱动力的指标对传统的睡眠质量客观特征的贡献占主导地位，因此，在多导睡眠图研究中，觉醒驱动力的影响可能完全被忽视。因此，女性较强的睡眠驱动力可以解释多导睡眠图研究中女性睡眠质量较好的原因。另一方面，如果女性较强的觉醒驱动力可以影响她们对睡眠质量的感知，这可以解释她们更频繁的睡眠相关抱怨。
