Self-reported nocturnal sleep duration is associated with next-day resting state functional connectivity

Abstract

Sleep deprivation affects cerebral metabolism and reduces the functional connectivity among various regions of the brain, potentially explaining some of the associated mood and emotional changes often observed. Prior neuroimaging studies have only examined the effects of sleep deprivation or partial sleep restriction on functional connectivity, but none have studied how such connectivity is associated with normal variations in self-reported sleep duration the night before the scan. We examined the relationship between sleep duration and resting state functional connectivity among healthy volunteers who slept at home according to their own schedules. Thirty-nine healthy individuals aged 18-45 (21 females) completed a questionnaire asking about their recent sleep habits and entries in their sleep diary for the previous night, followed by resting state functional MRI at 3 T. Participants reported sleeping between 5.0 and 8.5 h the night before the scan (M=7.0, SD=0.9). Seed regions were placed in the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex nodes of the default mode network, regions previously implicated in sleep deprivation. Longer self-reported sleep duration was associated with significantly enhanced functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate, as well as greater anticorrelations with parietal, occipital, and lateral prefrontal regions. Findings suggest that even normal variations in sleep duration measured by self-report are related to the strength of functional connectivity within select nodes of the default mode network and its anticorrelated network.