Association Between Slow Wave Activity and Sleep Inertia

February 6, 2026 updated by: Mahidol University

Association Between Slow Wave Activity and Sleep Inertia in Nighttime Simulated Naps: An Observational Study With Nap Intervention

Observational study:

The goal of this observational study is to learn about the association between slow wave activity before awakening and post-awakening psychomotor vigilance task in time-fixed, 2-hour, simulated night naps in healthy individuals.

The main question aims to answer is:

Is the quantity of slow wave activity immediately before awakening associated with post-awakening psychomotor vigilance task metrics when awakened after 2-hour nap at night?

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Sleepiness and fatigue are common complaints among shift workers, especially night shift workers. Napping interventions before a work shift have been reported to increase alertness and reduce accidents. However, naps may also result in impaired cognition for a brief period immediately after awakening, known as "sleep inertia", which can be particularly problematic in on-call settings and may require a worker to delay the return to work for up to about 30 minutes after waking. Although, nap duration less than 30 minutes, theoretically, may produce less intense sleep inertia. However, evidence regarding nap duration aiming to mitigate sleepiness and fatigue is mixing. We thus aimed to investigate the association between slow wave activity (SWA) assessed by EEG power spectral analysis during the last 10 minutes before awakening and 10-minute psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) immediately after awakening and 30 minutes after awakening in healthy participants on simulated night shift scenarios.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

28

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

      • Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, 73170
        • Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Probability Sample

Study Population

Healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 60 years, without significant sleep deprivation

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age between 18 and 60 years
  2. History of appropriate sleep duration at least 6 hours/night for a minimum of 2 weeks assessed by sleep diary before the trial

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. STOP-BANG ≥3 or previous diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea
  2. Presence of restless legs syndrome as assessed with IRLSSG criteria
  3. Presence of depression as assessed by HADS (Exclude participants with HADS-Depression sub-scale score ≥8 (possible depression)
  4. History of irregular work hours or shift work within 2 weeks
  5. Use of sedative/hypnotic medications on a regular-basis (3 days/week or above)
  6. History of epilepsy and brain tumor

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Nap intervention
Nap intervention is the protocol that allows the participant to sleep from 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM, then woken up.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
psychomotor vigilance test (PVT)
Time Frame: Psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) will be assessed 2 times: 1) immediately after awakening, and 2) at 30 minutes after awakening.
To investigate the association between slow wave activity (SWA) as assessed by electroencephalographic power spectral analysis during the last 10 minutes before awakening and a 10-minute psychomotor vigilance test (10-min PVT) immediately after awakening and 30 minutes after awakening in healthy participants on simulated night shifts
Psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) will be assessed 2 times: 1) immediately after awakening, and 2) at 30 minutes after awakening.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

February 4, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

April 15, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 30, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 6, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

February 13, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 13, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 6, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MURA2026/53

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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