Sleep interruption and exercise

Five men and five women participated in a study comparing the effects of sleep interruption with and without the imposition of physical activity. Subjects were awakened following the second REM period and returned to sleep 1 h later. In the IS condition they sat up and read during this period; in the ISE condition they exercised for 50 min at 60% VO2max. Relative to undisturbed sleep (US), IS resulted in a substantially shortened third non-REM (NREM) period, increased eye movement (EM) duration and density in the third REM period, and increased slow-wave sleep (SWS) in the fourth NREM period. The loss of delta sleep in the shortened NREM period was compensated for by an increase in delta sleep in the fourth NREM period (r = -0.90). However, total SWS obtained after interruption was unchanged from US. The ISE condition induced increases in cardiac output and temperature during sleep. No consistent changes in SWS were observed relative to IS, but the duration of the third REM period was reduced as well as EM duration and density within that REM period. Since REM sleep propensity is typically highest during the metabolic nadir of early morning sleep, the suppression of tonic and phasic components of REM sleep after ISE was concluded to result from the exercise-induced increase of metabolism and body temperature during sleep.