Extended nights, sleep loss, and recovery sleep in adolescents

In summary, this study of sleep in adolescents on an atypical schedule of 18-hour nights showed marked but not unanticipated differences in sleep as function of prior sleep deprivation. Unanticipated was the evidence of "recovery" sleep in adolescents who not only were not sleep deprived, but who had been on a sleep "optimizing" schedule and had been awake for only 10 hours. Extended sleep beginning about 4 hours in advance of entrained sleep onset phase was not associated with a return of SWS, a finding coinciding with predictions from studies in adults. Finally, this study provides an indication that the homeostatic sleep/wake process becomes less robust or sleep responsive during adolescent development, a phenomenon that may influence the delay of sleep common in adolescents.