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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1782525
Original Article

The Effects of Experimental Sleep Extension in Middle-to-Older-Aged Healthy Sleepers

Alexandria M. Reynolds 
1   Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
,
Zachary R. Seymour
2   Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, United States
,
Imran H. Iftikhar
3   Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
4   Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Atlanta, GA, United States
,
M. Michele Burnette
1   Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
,
Jennifer M. C. Vendemia
1   Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
,
Shawn D. Youngstedt
5   Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding Source This work was partially supported by: R01 HL095799
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Abstract

Objectives To determine the feasibility for middle-aged and older adults to extend their time in bed by 2 h per night for 3 consecutive weeks. Other aims were to examine the effects of sleep extension on mood, cognitive performance, and cardiovascular health.

Methods Ten healthy middle-aged to older adults (9 women; M = 65.20 ± 4.78 years) who reported regularly sleeping 6 to 8 h per night participated in a randomized controlled cross-over study: 3 weeks of both habitual sleep and extended sleep (1-week recovery between treatments). Participants were asked to spend 2 additional hours in bed per night during sleep extension. Cognitive (e.g., errors, response time), psychological (e.g., depression, anxiety, mood), and physiological measures (e.g., inflammation, glucose, triglycerides, blood pressure) were assessed.

Results Compared with habitual sleep, time in bed increased 81.63 ± 33.11 min and total sleep time increased 66.33 ± 28.64 min during sleep extension; these variables did not significantly change during baseline or the habitual sleep treatment. No significant treatment differences were found in the cognitive, psychological, or physiological measures.

Discussion Neither significant positive nor negative effects of sleep extension were found for any of the variables. In terms of feasibility, it was difficult for the participants to extend their time in bed and, subsequently, attain more sleep by the targeted amount. Sleep extension by a greater degree or longer period of times might be more likely to elicit positive or negative effects.

Keywords

inflammation - cognition - healthy volunteers - middle-aged - sleep

Disclosure

The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.




Publication History

Received: 30 June 2023

Accepted: 28 November 2023

Article published online:
13 June 2024

© 2024. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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