TY - JOUR
T1 - From the midnight sun to the longest night
T2 - Sleep in Antarctica
AU - Pattyn, Nathalie
AU - Van Puyvelde, Martine
AU - Fernandez-Tellez, Helio
AU - Roelands, Bart
AU - Mairesse, Olivier
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - Sleep disturbances are the main health complaints from personnel deployed in Antarctica. The current paper presents a systematic review of research findings on sleep disturbances in Antarctica. The available sources were divided in three categories: results based on questionnaire surveys or sleep logs, studies using actigraphy, and data from polysomnography results. Other areas relevant to the issue were also examined. These included chronobiology, since the changes in photoperiod have been known to affect circadian rhythms, mood disturbances, exercise, sleep and hypoxia, countermeasure investigations in Antarctica, and other locations lacking a normal photoperiod. Based on the combination of our reviewed sources and data outside the field of sleep studies, or from other geographical locations, we defined hypotheses to be confirmed or infirmed, which allowed to summarize a research agenda. Despite the scarcity of sleep research on the Antarctic continent, the present review pinpointed some consistent changes in sleep during the Antarctic winter, the common denominators being a circadian phase delay, poor subjective sleep quality, an increased sleep fragmentation, as well as a decrease in slow wave sleep. Similar changes, albeit less pronounced, were observed during summer. Additional multidisciplinary research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms behind these changes in sleep architecture, and to investigate interventions to improve the sleep quality of the men and women deployed in the Antarctic.
AB - Sleep disturbances are the main health complaints from personnel deployed in Antarctica. The current paper presents a systematic review of research findings on sleep disturbances in Antarctica. The available sources were divided in three categories: results based on questionnaire surveys or sleep logs, studies using actigraphy, and data from polysomnography results. Other areas relevant to the issue were also examined. These included chronobiology, since the changes in photoperiod have been known to affect circadian rhythms, mood disturbances, exercise, sleep and hypoxia, countermeasure investigations in Antarctica, and other locations lacking a normal photoperiod. Based on the combination of our reviewed sources and data outside the field of sleep studies, or from other geographical locations, we defined hypotheses to be confirmed or infirmed, which allowed to summarize a research agenda. Despite the scarcity of sleep research on the Antarctic continent, the present review pinpointed some consistent changes in sleep during the Antarctic winter, the common denominators being a circadian phase delay, poor subjective sleep quality, an increased sleep fragmentation, as well as a decrease in slow wave sleep. Similar changes, albeit less pronounced, were observed during summer. Additional multidisciplinary research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms behind these changes in sleep architecture, and to investigate interventions to improve the sleep quality of the men and women deployed in the Antarctic.
KW - Actigraphy
KW - Antarctica
KW - Insomnia
KW - Photoperiod
KW - Polar
KW - Polysomnography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018283150&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.smrv.2017.03.001
DO - 10.1016/j.smrv.2017.03.001
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28460798
AN - SCOPUS:85018283150
SN - 1087-0792
VL - 37
SP - 159
EP - 172
JO - Sleep Medicine Reviews
JF - Sleep Medicine Reviews
ER -