title: Sustained sleep restriction reduces emotional and physical well-being.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic insufficient sleep is a common finding in many pain-related and other medical diseases and is frequently experienced in the general population. Prolonged curtailment of nocturnal sleep has been studied for its adverse effect on cognitive functioning and subjective tiredness, but relatively little is known about its effect on mood and physical symptoms.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In order to test whether sleep restriction to 50% of the habitual time over 12 days affects diurnal and day-to-day variation of subjective ratings of mood and physical symptoms, 108 adjectives and statements were self-rated using visual analog scales every 2h during the waking period.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized, 16-day controlled in-laboratory study.
  
  
  METHODS
  General Clinical Research Center (GCRC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty healthy subjects aged 21-40 years (14 females, 26 males).
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were randomized to either 4h of sleep per night (11 pm-3 am, N=22) or 8h of sleep per night (11 pm-7 am, N=18) for 12 consecutive days.
  
  
  METHODS
  Changes in the factor-derived variables optimism-sociability, tiredness-fatigue, anger-aggression, bodily discomfort, and items constituting bodily discomfort were compared between groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Optimism-sociability progressively declined over consecutive days of sleep restriction by 15%. Bodily discomfort showed a slight, but significant interindividual increase of 3% across days of sleep restriction due to significant increases of generalized body pain, back pain, and stomach pain. Optimism-sociability and tiredness-fatigue showed diurnal variations with a quadratic function period within each day in both conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data suggest that chronic insufficient sleep may contribute to the onset and amplification of pain and affect health by compromising optimistic outlook and psychosocial functioning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, East Campus, Dana 779, 330 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haack
authors.forename: Janet M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mullington
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015984:Causality; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011788:Quality of Life; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*