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. 2011 Jan 1;589(Pt 1):235-44.
doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2010.197517. Epub 2010 Nov 8.

Energy expenditure during sleep, sleep deprivation and sleep following sleep deprivation in adult humans

Christopher M Jung  1 , Edward L Melanson, Emily J Frydendall, Leigh Perreault, Robert H Eckel, Kenneth P Wright
Affiliations

Energy expenditure during sleep, sleep deprivation and sleep following sleep deprivation in adult humans

Christopher M Jung et al. J Physiol. .

Abstract

Sleep has been proposed to be a physiological adaptation to conserve energy, but little research has examined this proposed function of sleep in humans. We quantified effects of sleep, sleep deprivation and recovery sleep on whole-body total daily energy expenditure (EE) and on EE during the habitual day and nighttime. We also determined effects of sleep stage during baseline and recovery sleep on EE. Seven healthy participants aged 22 ± 5 years (mean ± s.d.) maintained ∼8 h per night sleep schedules for 1 week before the study and consumed a weight-maintenance diet for 3 days prior to and during the laboratory protocol. Following a habituation night, subjects lived in a whole-room indirect calorimeter for 3 days. The first 24 h served as baseline – 16 h wakefulness, 8 h scheduled sleep – and this was followed by 40 h sleep deprivation and 8 h scheduled recovery sleep. Findings show that, compared to baseline, 24 h EE was significantly increased by ∼7% during the first 24 h of sleep deprivation and was significantly decreased by ∼5% during recovery, which included hours awake 25-40 and 8 h recovery sleep. During the night time, EE was significantly increased by ∼32% on the sleep deprivation night and significantly decreased by ∼4% during recovery sleep compared to baseline. Small differences in EE were observed among sleep stages, but wakefulness during the sleep episode was associated with increased energy expenditure. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that sleep conserves energy and that sleep deprivation increases total daily EE in humans.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Study protocol
Black boxes represent scheduled sleep opportunities and white boxes represent scheduled wakefulness. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack are denoted by B, L, D and S, respectively. Relative clock hour is on the abscissa and day of study is on the ordinate. Day 1 consisted of a habituation and sleep disorders screening night. Day 2 (baseline) consisted of 16 h of wakefulness and 8 h baseline sleep opportunity. Day 3 (sleep deprivation) consisted of 24 h of sleep deprivation. Day 4 (recovery) consisted of the remaining hours awake 25–40 h of sleep deprivation and 8 h recovery sleep. Energy expenditure was measured during days 2, 3 and 4.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Energy expenditure for hourly averages for the three 24 h days
Data are plotted for relative clock hours with subjects’ habitual wake time arbitrarily assigned a value of 08.00 h. The black bar represents the habitual night when sleep was scheduled on baseline and recovery nights and during which sleep deprivation occurred. Relative clock hours 08.00 and 24.00 h represent habitual wake and bedtimes, respectively. Relative clock hour 24.00 h includes data binned from 24.00 to 00.59 h and thus is the first hour of the scheduled sleep episode. Relative clock hour 08.00 h consists of data binned from 08.00–08.59 h, and thus is the first hour of the scheduled wake episode. Peaks of EE during the habitual daytime are associated with the thermic effects of food. * represent significant differences (P < 0.05) between baseline and sleep deprivation (1–24 h awake). # represents significant differences (P < 0.05) between baseline and recovery (25–40 h awake/8 h recovery sleep). † represents significant differences (P < 0.05) between sleep deprivation (1–24 h awake) and recovery (25–40 h awake/8 h recovery sleep). Error bars represent s.e.m.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Total daily energy expenditure and energy expenditure associated with habitual wake and sleep episodes
A, total daily EE in kJ day−1 for each day of the study. Energy expenditure in kJ min−1 during the 16 h habitual wake episode (B) and the 8 h habitual sleep episode (C). Lines represent significant differences between data at endpoints of the line. *P < 0.05. Error bars represent s.e.m.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Energy expenditure during wakefulness and sleep stages
The EE associated with WPSO was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than any stage of sleep and WASO during the baseline (black) and recovery (white) nights. The EE associated with WASO was significantly different to stage 2 during the baseline and recovery nights. The EE associated with stage 1 was significantly different to stage 2 during the recovery night. The EE associated WASO had a non-significant trend for being different to SWS during the baseline night. Lines represent significant differences between stages at endpoints of the line. N = 6. Error bars represent s.e.m. *P < 0.05 between sleep stages within nights. †P = 0.053
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