Circadian rhythms (temperature, heart rate, vigilance, mood) of short and long sleepers: effects of sleep deprivation.

Seven long sleepers (LS) (sleep greater than or equal to 9 h) and seven short sleepers (SS) (sleep less than or equal to 7 h), aged 20 to 23 years, were selected among medical students. They measured their axillary temperature (T), heart rate (HR) and self-estimated their vigilance (V) and mood (M) every 4 h from awakening to bed time during a ten-day control span and during the two sleep deprived nights. Polygraphic sleep recordings were performed on 3 control days and recovery from 24 h (day sleep) or 36 h (night sleep) sleep deprivations. For the 4 variables (T, HR, V and M), group circadian patterns were analyzed by means of the cosinor method for the control span and after both types of sleep deprivation. The acrophases of the 4 variables clustered more in LS than in SS. The acrophases of V and M were found to be more closely related to the sleep/wake rhythm than those of T and HR. Sleep deprivation resulted in a large change of the circadian rhythms in LS but had little effect in SS as indicated by the non detection of most acrophases in LS and the persistence of such acrophases in SS. This difference might be explained by the large interindividual variability of changes induced by the sleep deprivation in LS. Moreover, day sleep recovery was more disturbed in LS than in SS.