The effects of exercise on dynamic sleep morphology in healthy controls and patients with CFS

[Firestormm]

I can't see this has been posted here before but it was on Facebook yesterday and I don't recall it:

The effects of exercise on dynamic sleep morphology in healthy controls and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

Akifumi Kishi1,2,*, Fumiharu Togo3, Dane B. Cook4, Marc Klapholz5, Yoshiharu Yamamoto3, David M. Rapoport1, Benjamin H. Natelson6,†

Article first published online: 13 NOV 2013

Abstract

Effects of exercise on dynamic aspects of sleep have not been studied. We hypothesized exercise altered dynamic sleep morphology differently for healthy controls relative to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients.

Sixteen controls (38 ± 9 years) and 17 CFS patients (41 ± 8 years) underwent polysomnography on baseline nights and nights after maximal exercise testing.

We calculated transition probabilities and rates (as a measure of relative and temporal transition frequency, respectively) between sleep stages and cumulative duration distributions (as a measure of continuity) of each sleep stage and sleep as a whole.

After exercise, controls showed a significantly greater probability of transition from N1 to N2 and a lower rate of transition from N1 to wake than at baseline; CFS showed a significantly greater probability of transition from N2 to N3 and a lower rate of transition from N2 to N1. These findings suggest improved quality of sleep after exercise.

After exercise, controls had improved sleep continuity, whereas CFS had less continuous N1 and more continuous rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. However, CFS had a significantly greater probability and rate of transition from REM to wake than controls.

Probability of transition from REM to wake correlated significantly with increases in subjective fatigue, pain, and sleepiness overnight in CFS – suggesting these transitions may relate to patient complaints of unrefreshing sleep.

Thus, exercise promoted transitions to deeper sleep stages and inhibited transitions to lighter sleep stages for controls and CFS, but CFS also reported increased fatigue and continued to have REM sleep disruption. This dissociation suggests possible mechanistic pathways for the underlying pathology of CFS.

Full paper.

 

[lansbergen]

And again a link to acetylchooline

http://web.mst.edu/~rhall/neuroscience/03_sleep/sleepneuro.pdf

Further, drugs that act as ACh agonists increase REM, and antagonists decrease REM.

 

[MeSci]

I can't see this has been posted here before but it was on Facebook yesterday and I don't recall it:

They really need to test delayed effects, not just the effects on the night that starts on the same day as the exercise. My own PEM is usually delayed by at least 24 hours, and sometimes up to a week, and the PEM includes effects on sleep.

 

[Mark]

They really need to test delayed effects, not just the effects on the night that starts on the same day as the exercise. My own PEM is usually delayed by at least 24 hours, and sometimes up to a week, and the PEM includes effects on sleep.

Maybe...but I've wondered for a while whether the 24-hour to 48-hour delay might actually be the consequence of effects on sleep - maybe PEM shows up after 1 or 2 sleeps that are impaired due to the effects of the exertion. If that's the case, then some sleep disturbance would indeed show up straight away the next time you sleep after exertion, just as this study found, and then the PEM would show up the next day or the day after (24-48 hours), as a consequence of the impaired sleep. Whatever is getting hit by the poor sleep, it might take several poor sleeps for some people before reserves are run down and the physical consequences are observable. And then after that, the PEM itself (eg the pain) could then cause further disruption to sleep which is perhaps more noticeable than these more subtle REM effects. So I think this could all fit, without need to study sleep 24-48 hours after exertion in order to observe this effect, although of course it would be great to study the sleep for a week after exercise as well to get a better understanding. My own hunch is that something like what I've just described is indeed the mechanism behind the 24-hr to 1-week delay in PEM - I've suspected that for some time.