The effect of placebo administration on the first-night effect in healthy young volunteers

The first-night effect is a well-known phenomenon that is considered to result from a subject's lack of adaptation to the unfamiliar environment of a sleep laboratory and to the technical equipment used for polysomnography. The effect has been explored as a laboratory model for transient insomnia. The main characteristics of this effect are short total sleep time (TST) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a lower sleep efficiency index, and longer REM sleep latency. Previous studies have reported that personality traits (such as trait anxiety) are a potential cause of the first-night effect and that the placebo effect is closely related to the anxiety levels of the subjects. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reports regarding the effects of a placebo on first-night sleep. This omission can be explained by the fact that the polysomnographic recordings obtained during the first night of a study are generally excluded from the analysis in order to avoid the inclusion of the first-night effect. In the present study, 8 male university students were subjected to polysomnographic examinations during drug-free, placebo-administration, and benzodiazepine-administration conditions in order to clarify the placebo effect on sleep during consecutive nights, particularly on the first night. The recordings for each condition were conducted for 4 consecutive nights. A placebo or 5 mg nitrazepam was administered at 2230 h using a double-blind crossover design, while no drug was administered during the drug-free condition. There was a 10-day interval between the examination of each condition. Polysomnographic recording was started at 2300 h and continued until the natural awakening of the subjects on the next morning. Subsequently, the subjects were requested to fill in a rating scale that is used to evaluate the subjective perception of sleep. An increase in stage-2 sleep associated with the first-night effect was observed on the first night during the drug-free and placebo-administration conditions. However, REM sleep reduction associated with the first-night effect was detected on the first night during the drug-free condition; this decrease in REM sleep was counteracted by the placebo during the placebo-administration condition. The nitrazepam, but not the placebo, decreased both slow-wave sleep (SWS) and REM sleep. The values for the tendency to fall asleep, feeling refreshed upon awakening in the morning, and the tension upon awakening in the morning were improved to a greater extent by the placebo and nitrazepam administrations than when no drug was administered. These results demonstrate the possibility that placebo administration may have a hypnotic/anxiolytic effect and may improve transient insomnia without causing SWS and REM sleep reductions.