Study objectives

There is contradictory evidence on whether sleep need decreases across adolescence. We investigated this question longitudinally with a dose-response design to test the effects of varied sleep durations on daytime sleepiness and on vigilance and to test whether these relations change with age across early and mid-adolescence.

Methods

Data from 76 participants who completed at least 2 years of the 3-year study are included in this report. Annually, participants ranging in age from 9.8 to 16.2 years completed three different time in bed (TIB) schedules each consisting of four consecutive nights of 7, 8.5, or 10 hours. Daytime sleepiness (multiple sleep latency test [MSLT]) and vigilance (psychomotor vigilance test [PVT]) were measured on the day following the fourth night of each TIB schedule.

Results

Electroencephalogram (EEG)-measured sleep durations changed linearly with TIB. MSLT-measured daytime sleepiness decreased with longer TIB and increased with age. The TIB and age effects interacted such that the TIB effect decreased with age. PVT performance improved with longer TIB and improved with age, but the benefit that increased TIB conferred on PVT performance did not change with age.

Conclusions

These results seem paradoxical because daytime sleepiness increased but vigilance improved with age. The significant age effect on the relation between TIB and sleepiness compared to the lack of an age effect on the relation between TIB and vigilance performance suggests different rates of maturation in underlying brain systems. We interpret these findings in relation to our model of adolescent brain development driven by synaptic elimination.