Short nights reduce light-induced circadian phase delays in humans

Abstract

Study objective: Short sleep episodes are common in modern society. We recently demonstrated that short nights reduce phase advances to light. Here we show that short nights also reduce phase delays to light.

Design: Two weeks of 6-hour sleep episodes in the dark (short nights) and 2 weeks of long 9-hour sleep episodes (long nights) in counterbalanced order, separated by 7 days. Following each series of nights, there was a dim-light phase assessment to assess baseline phase. Three days later, subjects were exposed to a phase-delaying light stimulus for 2 days, followed by a final phase assessment.

Setting: Subjects slept at home in dark bedrooms but came to the laboratory for the phase assessments and light stimulus.

Participants: Seven young healthy subjects.

Interventions: The 3.5-hour light stimulus was four 30-minute pulses of bright light (-5000 lux) separated by 30-minute intervals of room light. The stimulus began 2.5 hours after each subject's dim-light melatonin onset, followed by a 6- or 9-hour sleep episode. On the second night, the bright light and sleep episode began 1 hour later.

Measurements and results: The dim-light melatonin onset and dimlight melatonin offset phase delayed 1.4 and 0.7 hours less in the short nights, respectively (both p < or = .015).

Conclusions: These results indicate for the first time that short nights can reduce circadian phase delays, that long nights can increase phase delays to light, or both. People who curtail their sleep may inadvertently reduce their circadian responsiveness to evening light.

Figure 1

An experimental protocol for an individual subject who experienced the short nights first. Black shading indicates the sleep/dark episodes at night (6 or 9 hours) and optional 3-hour nap zone in the afternoon during the short-nights condition. L refers to delaying bright-light stimulus: four 30-minute bright-light pulses alternating with ordinary room light, starting 2.5 hours after the baseline dimlight melatonin onset and delaying by 1 hour on the second night; D, dim light (< 60 lux) in the laboratory; ↑, the time of dim-light melatonin onset; ↓, the time of dim-light melatonin offset; = at least 10 minutes of outdoor light. For clarity, the phase assessments are shown as starting and ending at 15:00.

Figure 2

An individual subject's melatonin profiles during the baseline (open circles) and final phase assessment (closed circles) during the short and long nights. The melatonin levels were determined from saliva samples collected every 30 minutes in dim light. The protocol for this individual is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3

The mean phase delays (N = 7) observed in the dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO), midpoint, and dim-light melatonin offset (DLMOff) due to the delaying bright-light stimulus during the long and short nights. Error bars represent SEM. There was a significant reduction in the phase delay in all 3 circadian phase markers during the short nights, as compared with during the long nights.