Daytime sleepiness in young adults

The daytime sleepiness of a large sample (n = 129) of healthy, young (age 18-29) adults with no sleep-wake complaints was measured and compared with that of a sample (n = 47) of older (age 30-80) healthy, normal sleeping, subjects. Each spent 8 h in the laboratory on 1 night and received the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) the following day. Sleep latency was measured at 1000, 1200, 1400, and 1600 h. Mean sleep latency ranged from 2 to 20 min within each group, but the shape of the distribution of latency between groups was different. The mean latency of young subjects (particularly college students) was shorter than that of the older subjects, with the differences occurring between the sleepiest 80% of each distribution. Among the college students, those with higher nocturnal sleep efficiencies (the previous night) were sleepier the following day than those with lower sleep efficiencies. The relation between nocturnal sleep efficiency and daytime sleepiness suggests that the increased sleepiness of average young adults is due to mild sleep restriction.