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. 2014 Nov 7;9(11):e112199.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112199. eCollection 2014.

A longitudinal assessment of sleep timing, circadian phase, and phase angle of entrainment across human adolescence

Affiliations

A longitudinal assessment of sleep timing, circadian phase, and phase angle of entrainment across human adolescence

Stephanie J Crowley et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The aim of this descriptive analysis was to examine sleep timing, circadian phase, and phase angle of entrainment across adolescence in a longitudinal study design. Ninety-four adolescents participated; 38 (21 boys) were 9-10 years ("younger cohort") and 56 (30 boys) were 15-16 years ("older cohort") at the baseline assessment. Participants completed a baseline and then follow-up assessments approximately every six months for 2.5 years. At each assessment, participants wore a wrist actigraph for at least one week at home to measure self-selected sleep timing before salivary dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) phase - a marker of the circadian timing system - was measured in the laboratory. Weekday and weekend sleep onset and offset and weekend-weekday differences were derived from actigraphy. Phase angles were the time durations from DLMO to weekday sleep onset and offset times. Each cohort showed later sleep onset (weekend and weekday), later weekend sleep offset, and later DLMO with age. Weekday sleep offset shifted earlier with age in the younger cohort and later in the older cohort after age 17. Weekend-weekday sleep offset differences increased with age in the younger cohort and decreased in the older cohort after age 17. DLMO to sleep offset phase angle narrowed with age in the younger cohort and became broader in the older cohort. The older cohort had a wider sleep onset phase angle compared to the younger cohort; however, an age-related phase angle increase was seen in the younger cohort only. Individual differences were seen in these developmental trajectories. This descriptive study indicated that circadian phase and self-selected sleep delayed across adolescence, though school-day sleep offset advanced until no longer in high school, whereupon offset was later. Phase angle changes are described as an interaction of developmental changes in sleep regulation interacting with psychosocial factors (e.g., bedtime autonomy).

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following competing interests: Dr. Acebo is a shareholder of Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and employee of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. who, in the course of this employment, has received stock options exercisable for, and other stock awards of, ordinary shares of Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc. Her work on this project preceded this industry involvement and the study was not supported in any way by Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Barker is a consultant for Insmed, Inc.; the article submitted is not related to this relationship. The other authors have indicated no competing interests. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Modeled developmental trajectories (bold line) and individual trajectories (thin lines) for actigraphically estimated sleep onset and offset on weekdays (A and D) and weekends (B and E) in the proximal 7 days before DLMO phase was measured in both cohorts.
Sleep onset and offset differences between weekends and weekdays (C and F) illustrate when participants slept earlier (<0) or later (>0) on weekends compared to weekdays. The younger cohort (9–13 years) is on the left and the older cohort (15–19 years) is on the right of each plot.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Modeled developmental trajectories (bold line) and individual trajectories (thin lines) for DLMO phase (A), DLMO phase angle to sleep onset (B), and DLMO phase angle to sleep offset (C).
A negative DLMO phase angle to sleep onset indicates when the DLMO occurred after weekday sleep onset.
Figure 3
Figure 3. A proposed model to explain phase angle to sleep onset differences in the younger (top) and older (bottom) adolescent cohorts.
Black horizontal bars illustrate average sleep times for each cohort (younger: 21:55–06:35; older: 23:02–06:40). Bold lines illustrate sleep pressure accumulation and dissipation functions predicted by the homeostatic sleep system. The upward facing arrow indicates the average DLMO phase for each age group (younger: 20:42; older: 20:54), and the right-facing block arrow shows the interval between DLMO phase and sleep onset (phase angle to sleep onset). Based on previous modeling work, the saturating exponential function reaches it maximum more quickly and therefore at an earlier clock time in the younger cohort compared to the older cohort. We propose that the older adolescents are able to stay awake for a longer period of time (∼2 h) after DLMO phase compared to the younger adolescents (∼1 h) because of this developmental difference in homeostatic sleep pressure at the end of the waking day.

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