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Researchers have found that overnight sleep loss provokes an almost immediate rise in sleep-inducing hormones, leaving the individual to wage a battle of will to stay awake against a rising wave of sleepiness.

The researchers--led by Victor Hng-Hang Goh of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the National University of Singapore--focused on 14 healthy men between the ages of 20 and 30 who were active members of the Singapore Armed Forces.

It is found that those men deprived of adequate sleep produced a much higher level of the hormone melatonin than those whose sleep pattern was not disturbed. Melatonin is a hormone that plays an important role in regulating sleep. The hormone is sleep inducing in some people.

The men were divided into two groups, the first of which slept a full eight hours. The others remained awake all night. Saliva samples were taken and strength and motor skill tests were conducted with all the men before and after the evening of sleep deprivation.

While short-term sleep deprivation did not appear to affect the men's ability to perform tasks involving either motor control or strength, the researchers concluded that losing just eight hours of sleep does have a real and immediate effect on an individual's state of mind and feelings of fatigue.

The researchers further found that levels of cortisol--a hormone associated with increased stress--did not rise to higher levels among the sleep-deprived men then among those who slept normally.

The Military Medicine 2001;166:427-431 however added that an indirect cortisol connection was in evidence, as the researchers noted that those with inadequate sleep who experienced the stress of trying to stay awake did display increased cortisol levels along with peak melatonin increases--both around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Information provided is courtesy of and compiled by the Academy of Anti-Aging Research staffs, editors, and other reports.