The Effects of Controlled Delta Sleep Deprivation on Experimental Pain in Healthy Subjects

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Abstract
Objectives: The interaction between sleep and pain is important in patients suffering from rheumatic illness. Not only can pain disturb sleep, but alterations in the deeper sleep stages induced by the disease process may have the potential to decrease the pain threshold. Previous studies however, have shown diverging results. In the current experiment we studied the effects of deep sleep deprivation using a standardized, computer-assisted system on subjective symptoms and pain elicited by different experimental modalities.Methods: Ten healthy males, mean age 22.7 years, were subjected to deprivation of the deeper sleep stages for three nights. Following a baseline recording, sleep was analyzed in 2 s segments with on-line frequency analysis. If any 30 s epoch contained more than seven 2 s segments dominated by low frequency content corresponding to deep sleep, the sleep was disturbed by an acoustic stimulus. The amount of delta power was computed in sleep stages non-rapid-eye-movement [NREM] 2–4. Subjects...