0097 REM-like Neural Activity Is Superior to NREM Parameters for Predicting Non-sleep Restricted Vigilance. (25th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vattikuti, Shashaank; Balkin, Thomas; Braun, Allen; Riedy, Samantha; Doty, Tracy; Hughes, John
• Is Part Of: Sleep. Volume 45(2022)Supplement 1
• Page Start: A43
• Page End: A44
• Publication Date: 2022-05-25
• Subjects: Sleep -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals; Sleep disorders -- Periodicals; Sommeil -- Aspect physiologique -- Périodiques; Sommeil, Troubles du -- Périodiques; Sleep disorders; Sleep -- Physiological aspects; Sleep -- physiological aspects; Sleep Wake Disorders; Psychophysiology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 616.8498
• DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsac079.095
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0161-8105

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Currently unknown is whether REM-like neural activity reverses, incurs, or is neutral with respect to its effect on sleep pressure independent from NREM recovery. We investigated the relationship between a novel scalp-EEG measure of REM-like neural activity and next-day performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) – a sensitive measure of sleep debt. Our EEG measure reflects the oscillatory-theta activity (OTA) that is the hallmark of REM sleep in animal studies. This method preserves amplitude information, isolates OTA from aperiodic theta-band power, and accounts for REM-like activity thought to occur outside of conventionally scored-REM epochs. We compared the PVT-association of OTA, traditionally measured EEG REM-theta, and traditional sleep parameters. To assess REM-like independent effects, we controlled for traditional parameters using a multivariate model. Methods: Our method uses Irregular-Resampling Auto-Spectral Analysis to remove the aperiodic spectrum, followed by low-band power normalization to derive the relative oscillatory-theta activity (OTA). The average OTA was then used to predict next-day performance on the PVT. Traditional sleep parameters (sleep efficiency, total sleep time, %NREM, %N3, and delta-band power) were also examined. We combined data from two previously reported in-laboratory studies resulting in a sample size of 42 healthy young adult subjects. Analyses used non-sleep restricted overnight EEG recordings from a frontal channel. Results: There was a substantial PVT-OTA association (OTA positively correlated with response-time and thus with reduced vigilance) during scored-REM epochs (r=0.44, p=0.003). This was stable irrespective of conventional sleep staging when using all sleep epochs (r=0.48, p=0.001), and OTA during scored-NREM (r=0.35, p=0.02). The effect was also stable after controlling for total sleep time, %NREM, and N3 delta-band power in a multivariate model (all-sleep PVT-OTA: r=0.5, p=0.004). Traditional sleep parameters were not significantly correlated with PVT performance. Conclusion: OTA was a superior quantitative predictor of reduced next-day vigilance than traditional sleep parameters, and this persisted after controlling for NREM parameters. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that periods of high REM-like activity are less restorative than other periods and may actually increase homeostatic sleep pressure. Support (If Any): This effort was supported by the Department of Defense Military Operational Medicine Research Program.