Circadian Regulation of Sleep in Habitual Short Sleepers and Long Sleepers

March 3, 2008 updated by: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Routine sleep duration varies greatly among individuals. The biological meaning of this variation is unknown.

The term circadian rhythm refers to the biological clock that regulates the timing of falling asleep, waking up, and secretion of hormones, like melatonin. Melatonin is secreted at night. Previous studies have shown that melatonin may play a role in the regulation of sleep.

The purpose of this study is to learn whether the duration of nighttime (nocturnal) melatonin secretion is longer in people with long regular sleep duration than people with short sleep duration.

Researchers will compare levels of melatonin and cortisol, body temperature, sleepiness, and sleep in two extreme groups. Group one will be made up of people with short sleep duration lasting less than 6 hours. Group two will be made up of people with long sleep duration lasting more than 9 hours.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

Habitual sleep duration varies greatly among individuals. The biological meaning of this variation is unknown. The present project proposes that differences in habitual sleep duration are associated with differences in the output of the endogenous circadian pacemaker, which programs the 'internal biological night'. The protocol hypothesizes that the duration of the internal biological night as defined by the nocturnal intervals of detectable plasma melatonin levels, low body temperature, low EEG activity in the high-frequency alpha band, increasing sleepiness and increasing plasma cortisol levels is longer in habitual long sleepers (sleep duration greater than 9 hours) than in short sleepers (less than 6 hours). Since recent results in healthy subjects suggest that melatonin has some soporific or hypnotic properties, we furthermore hypothesize that the level of nocturnal melatonin secretion is higher in long sleepers than in short sleepers. The circadian rhythms of plasma melatonin, body temperature, waking EEG activity, subjective sleepiness and plasma cortisol will be assessed in a ~40-hour constant routine protocol. In addition, a 36-hour extended bed rest protocol will be carried out in order to study spontaneous sleep duration and sleep structure under ad lib conditions while time cues and social cues are absent. It is hypothesized that as a consequence of differences in the circadian output, long sleepers will sleep more, have a different sleep structure, and spontaneously wake up on a lower level of homeostatic sleep pressure than short sleepers. Finally, we intend to determine whether differences in habitual sleep duration between long and short sleepers are associated with dysthymic and hypomanic characteristics of mood, respectively. We are asking to study a total of 15 long sleepers and 15 short sleepers. Given that we have already studied 9 long sleepers and 9 short sleepers, we anticipate that 72 patient-days per year for one year would be required to complete the study.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment

38

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Maryland
      • Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892
        • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Sleep greater than or equal to 9 hours almost every night.

Sleep less than or equal to 6 hours almost every night.

Between ages 20-30.

No medications, history of psychiatric illness, history of head injury.

No sleep disturbances.

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?

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

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

May 1, 1996

Study Completion

June 1, 2000

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 3, 1999

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 9, 2002

First Posted (Estimate)

December 10, 2002

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 4, 2008

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 3, 2008

Last Verified

April 1, 1999

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 960087
  • 96-M-0087

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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