Relationships between epinephrine, waking time, and self-estimates for naps at night.
In a previous study, we established a basal regression line between epinephrine excretion and percent of waking time in bed-rested humans under conditions involving minimal stress. We suggested that this regression line might be clinically useful for observing insomnia. The present study was undertaken to examine whether epinephrine excretion during short-duration sleep, such as naps, is influenced by a transient insomniac state. Polysomnograms during a 2-hour nap from 0000 to 0200 were recorded three times for six healthy male subjects. Epinephrine excretion levels during sleep were found to increase along the basal regression line when percent of waking time went up. The subjects with over 30% waking time during this 2-hour period reported that their sleep was light and not satisfactory at all. These results support our position that the regression line can be useful for observing a transient insomniac state.
Nishihara
K
K
Department of Psychophysiology, Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, Japan.
Mori
K
K
D000328:Adult; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology*
D004837:Epinephrine