Changes in total amount of stage four sleep as a function of partial sleep deprivation

The amount of time during which a stage 4 EEG was present showed a substantial elevation although the procedure resulted in no prior reduction of the total nightly amount of stage 4.

Abstract

Following a series of baseline nights, four adult subjects slept a series of nights in which the time allowed for sleep was reduced by approximately 2.5–3 h. The amount of time during which a stage 4 EEG was present showed a substantial elevation although the procedure resulted in no prior reduction of the total nightly amount of stage 4. This was most apparent on the final (“recovery”) night in the series which could be treated as a “short sleep” night by simply not considering the final hours of recording.