Different sleep schedules in adolescents may have different effects on cognition and blood glucose

Many teenage students sleep less than the recommended length of 8-10 hours per night. It's unclear; However, if a night's sleep combined with an afternoon nap is as good as having the same amount of sleep continuously during the night without a nap. Researchers at the Duke-NUS School of Medicine demonstrated for the first time that different sleep schedules with the same 24 hour total sleep potential could have different effects on cognition and glucose levels. This is the first study to gather experimental evidence on the notion that "a sleep that would be suitable for one health goal may not be for another."

The few studies that examined split sleep schedules with normal total sleep duration in working-age adults showed that both schedules provided comparable brain performance. However, no study has examined the impact of these schedules on brain function and blood glucose, especially when total sleep is shorter than optimal. This last point is important because of the links between short sleep and the risk of diabetes.

The researchers measured cognitive performance and blood glucose levels after a standardized load in students aged 15-19 during two simulated school weeks, with a short sleep on school days and a Recovery sleep on the weekends. On school days, these students slept either 6.5 hours at night or in continuous dormancy (5 hours and one night, plus a 1.5 hour nap).

"We undertook this study after students who were advised good sleep habits asked if they could divide their sleep day and night, instead of having a main sleep period at night," he said. said Professor Michael Chee, Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Professor of Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS School of Medicine and one of the lead authors of the study. "We found that compared to being able to sleep 9 hours a night, sleeping only 6.5 hours in 24 hours degrades performance and mood." Interestingly, in restricted sleep conditions, students of the split sleep group showed better alertness, alertness, memory work and mood than their counterparts who slept 6.5 hours without interruption.This finding is remarkable because the total sleep time measured over 24 hours was actually lower in the previous group, "added Professor Chee.

However, for glucose tolerance, the continuous pattern seemed to be better. "Although 6.5 hours of nighttime sleep did not affect blood glucose, the split sleep group showed a greater increase in blood glucose levels to normalized glucose levels over the course of two weeks." Simulated school, "said Dr. Joshua Gooley, an badociate professor of neuroscience and behavioral disorders. Program, Principal Investigator at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Duke-NUS Faculty of Medicine and co-lead author of this study.

Although further studies are needed to see if these results translate into a higher risk of diabetes later in life, current results indicate that beyond sleep duration, schedules of Different sleep can affect different facets of health and operate in directions that are not immediately clear.

Professor Patrick Casey, Associate Dean of Research at Duke-NUS School of Medicine, said, "Recent sleep surveys show that Singaporeans are among the poorest people in the world. A series of studies by a team of researchers from the Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program and the Cognitive Neuroscience Center have provided a better understanding of the importance of good sleep. "