Benasi Cheng Aggarwal 2024

Both studies were randomized crossover trials, with two 6-wk intervention phases, separated by a 2–6-wk washout period. Participants were randomized to one of two sleep conditions (HS or SR) at the baseline visit for phase 1 and returned after the washout period to complete the alternate sleep condition for phase 2.

The researchers had participants complete two different six-week sleep periods. During one period, participants followed their normal sleep schedule, and during the other, they went to bed 1.5 hours later each night while continuing to wake up at their usual time. Each participant experienced both sleep conditions, with a break between them.

Even though mild sleep loss is more commonly experienced in real-world settings than total sleep deprivation (15, 16) and it has been suggested that consecutive days of partial sleep loss may have cumulative effects on cognitive performance and daily well-being (17, 18), the effect of sustained mild sleep loss in a naturalistic setting remains understudied.

Previous research has often examined severe sleep deprivation over short periods or in laboratory settings. The researchers wanted to find out how a smaller but prolonged loss of sleep, which is more similar to what people may experience in everyday life, affects stress and mental well-being.

There were significant differences between HS and SR in levels of perceived stress (p=0.0007) and subjective anxiety (p=0.039) at endpoint (Table 2). Specifically, the PSS-10 and HADS-A scores were 3.6 (SD=1.0) and 1.1 (SD=0.5) points higher in SR compared with HS, indicating higher perceived stress and subjective anxiety at endpoint after 6 wk of SR.

After six weeks of restricted sleep, participants reported significantly higher levels of perceived stress and anxiety than they did after following their normal sleep schedules. This suggests that consistently getting less sleep can negatively affect psychological well-being even when the amount of sleep lost each night is relatively small.

Consistent with findings of acute sleep loss, our results indicate that milder forms of SR sustained over 6 wk and conducted in real world setting can lead to increased perceived stress and subjective anxiety.

The findings show that even mild sleep restriction, when it continues for several weeks under normal real-world conditions, can increase feelings of stress and anxiety in healthy adults. This means that people may not need to experience extreme sleep deprivation for insufficient sleep to have a negative effect on their mental well-being.

Future research could examine whether the same effects occur in larger and more diverse groups of people and over longer periods of time. It could also investigate whether restoring adequate sleep can reverse increases in stress and anxiety caused by prolonged sleep restriction.

I found the statistical results the most challenging part of the paper to understand, particularly interpreting p-values and determining how they demonstrate that the differences in stress and anxiety between the two sleep conditions were statistically significant.