Short Nights Reduce Light-Induced Circadian Phase Delays in Humans
Open accessAbstract
STUDY OBJECTIVE: Short sleep episodes are common in modern society. We recently demonstrated that short nights reduce phase advances to light. Here we show that short nights also reduce phase delays to light. DESIGN: Two weeks of 6-hour sleep episodes in the dark (short nights) and 2 weeks of long 9-hour sleep episodes (long nights) in counterbalanced order, separated by 7 days. Following each series of nights, there was a dim-light phase assessment to assess baseline phase. Three days later, subjects were exposed to a phase-delaying light stimulus for 2 days, followed by a final phase assessment. SETTING: Subjects slept at home in dark bedrooms but came to the laboratory for the phase assessments and light stimulus. PARTICIPANTS: Seven young healthy subjects. INTERVENTIONS: The 3.5-hour light stimulus was four 30-minute pulses of bright light (-5000 lux) separated by 30-minute intervals of room light. The stimulus began 2.5 hours after each subject's dim-light melatonin onset, followed by a 6- or 9-hour sleep episode. On the second night, the bright light and sleep episode began 1 hour later. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The dim-light melatonin onset and dimlight melatonin offset phase delayed 1.4 and 0.7 hours less in the short nights, respectively (both p < or = .015). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate for the first time that short nights can reduce circadian phase delays, that long nights can increase phase delays to light, or both. People who curtail their sleep may inadvertently reduce their circadian responsiveness to evening light.
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Exposure to long periods of darkness may have stabilized the patient's mood through their known capacity to increase the magnitude of the circadian pacemaker's phase-resetting response to light and thereby to strengthen its coupling to the day-night cycle.
“In that schedule, exposure to the long periods of darkness may have stabilized his mood through their known capacity to increase the magnitude of the circadian pacemaker’s phase-resetting response to light and thereby to strengthen its coupling to the day–night cycle14,15.”
From Bipolar mood cycles associated with lunar entrainment of a circadian rhythm (2018) · cites this paper as [15]
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- Authors
- Burgess, H. J., & Eastman, C. I.
- Affiliations
- Rush University Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Burgess, Helen J.
- Venue
- Sleep
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2006-01
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 25-30
- ISSN
- 0161-8105 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-9109
- PMC
- PMC3841979
- OpenAlex
- W258054985
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 5 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- SLEEP (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- American Sleep Medicine Foundation
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01 HL72408, R01HL072408)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- circadian phase delay, light-induced phase shift, phase advance, dim light melatonin onset, circadian rhythm, sleep duration, evening light exposure
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Circadian Rhythm, Female, Humans, Light, Male, Melatonin, Sleep Deprivation, Time Factors, Photoperiod
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