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Surveillance During REM Sleep for the First-Night Effect
1Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|November 19, 2019
Summary
The first-night effect (FNE) involves a brain surveillance system during NREM sleep, but not REM sleep. This system shows hemisphere differences in NREM sleep but not REM sleep, with vigilance increasing in both hemispheres during REM sleep's phasic period.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sleep Research
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- The first-night effect (FNE) is a phenomenon of disturbed sleep in unfamiliar environments.
- Previous research linked FNE to a unilateral brain surveillance system during NREM sleep, characterized by interhemispheric asymmetry in default-mode network (DMN) sleep depth and heightened vigilance.
- The current study explored if a similar system operates during REM sleep, considering its distinct phasic and tonic periods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the presence and characteristics of a brain surveillance system during REM sleep under the influence of the FNE.
- To compare the FNE's impact on oscillatory activities (delta and theta) and evoked brain responses (P2) during REM sleep's phasic and tonic periods with NREM sleep findings.
- To determine if interhemispheric asymmetry is a feature of the FNE-associated surveillance system during REM sleep.
Main Methods:
- Replication of NREM sleep findings regarding interhemispheric asymmetry in DMN delta activity during FNE.
- Analysis of interhemispheric asymmetry in delta and theta activities during REM sleep's phasic and tonic periods.
- Measurement of vigilance using evoked brain responses (P2 amplitudes to deviant tones) during REM sleep's phasic and tonic periods across the first and second nights.
- Comparison of P2 amplitudes between hemispheres and across sleep stages.
Main Results:
- Previous findings of interhemispheric asymmetry in DMN delta activity during FNE in NREM sleep were replicated.
- No interhemispheric asymmetry in delta or theta activity was observed during either the phasic or tonic periods of REM sleep.
- Vigilance, measured by P2 amplitudes, was significantly increased during the FNE in the phasic period of REM sleep, but not the tonic period.
- P2 amplitudes showed no interhemispheric asymmetry during either REM sleep period.
Conclusions:
- The FNE-associated surveillance system during NREM sleep, marked by interhemispheric asymmetry, does not appear to operate similarly during REM sleep.
- While NREM sleep shows hemispheric asymmetry in vigilance, REM sleep exhibits increased vigilance in both hemispheres during its phasic period, without hemispheric bias.
- The mechanisms underlying the FNE-associated surveillance system likely differ between NREM and REM sleep stages.
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