Daytime napping after a night of sleep loss decreases sleepiness, improves performance, and causes beneficial changes in cortisol and interleukin-6 secretion

Aug 31, 2006American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism

Daytime napping after lost sleep reduces sleepiness, boosts performance, and improves stress and inflammation hormone levels

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Abstract

A 2-h midafternoon nap following a night of sleep loss resulted in a significant drop in cortisol and IL-6 levels.

Sleep loss is linked to increased sleepiness, decreased performance, and elevated inflammatory markers.
A midafternoon nap led to significantly reduced sleepiness as measured by both objective and subjective tests.
Cortisol levels increased transiently after napping, while IL-6 levels tended to remain low for about 8 hours.
The nap showed a smaller, yet significant improvement in performance on the psychomotor vigilance task.

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Sleep loss has been associated with increased sleepiness, decreased performance, elevations in inflammatory cytokines, and insulin resistance. Daytime napping has been promoted as a countermeasure to sleep loss. To assess the effects of a 2-h midafternoon nap following a night of sleep loss on postnap sleepiness, performance, cortisol, and IL-6, 41 young healthy individuals (20 men, 21 women) participated in a 7-day sleep deprivation experiment (4 consecutive nights followed by a night of sleep loss and 2 recovery nights). One-half of the subjects were randomly assigned to take a midafternoon nap (1400-1600) the day following the night of total sleep loss. Serial 24-h blood sampling, multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), subjective levels of sleepiness, and psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) were completed on the fourth (predeprivation) and sixth days (postdeprivation). During the nap, subjects had a significant drop in cortisol and IL-6 levels (P < 0.05). After the nap they experienced significantly less sleepiness (MSLT and subjective, P < 0.05) and a smaller improvement on the PVT (P < 0.1). At that time, they had a significant transient increase in their cortisol levels (P < 0.05). In contrast, the levels of IL-6 tended to remain decreased for approximately 8 h (P = 0.1). We conclude that a 2-h midafternoon nap improves alertness, and to a lesser degree performance, and reverses the effects of one night of sleep loss on cortisol and IL-6. The redistribution of cortisol secretion and the prolonged suppression of IL-6 secretion are beneficial, as they improve alertness and performance.

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Daytime napping after a night of sleep loss decreases sleepiness, improves performance, and causes beneficial changes in cortisol and interleukin-6 secretion

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