Circadian Rhythms and Homeostatic Sleep Drive and Their Effect on Reward and Cognitive Control Systems in Adolescents — CARRS-P1  

Sleep Clinical Trial

Official title: Center for Adolescent Reward, Rhythms and Sleep Project 1

Status Recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

Adolescence is a time of heightened reward sensitivity and greater impulsivity. On top of this, many teenagers experience chronic sleep deprivation and misalignment of their circadian rhythms due to biological shifts in their sleep/wake patterns paired with early school start times, which may increase the risk for substance use (SU). However, what impact circadian rhythm and sleep disruption either together or independently have on the neuronal circuitry that controls reward and cognition, or if there are interventions that might help to modify these disruptions is unknown. Project 1 (P1), specifically examines homeostatic and circadian characteristics as mechanisms linking habitual sleep patterns, reward and cognitive control (at subjective, behavioral, and circuit levels), and longitudinal substance use risk.

Clinical Trial Description

P1 will study 96 adolescents ages 13-15, stratified by habitual sleep timing (early, intermediate, late), in a 60-h laboratory study. Participants will monitor sleep patterns at home for 2 weeks with actigraphy and sleep diary, and will also complete fMRI measures of reward and cognitive control. This will be followed by a 60-hour laboratory visit. The laboratory session includes two nights of polysomnography (PSG) sleep studies, separated by 36 h of an ultradian sleep/wake protocol-every 120-minutes, there will be an 80-minute period of waking, followed by a 40-minute sleep opportunity. Participants will be in dim light conditions and temporal isolation for the first 24 h of the ultradian sleep/wake protocol. Physiological circadian measures include salivary melatonin; core body temperature (CBT); and molecular rhythms from hair follicle cells (examined in Project 3). Physiological sleep homeostatic measures include waking EEG theta power, slow-wave sleep rebound following the 36-h ultradian sleep/wake protocol, and repeated sleep latency on the sleep opportunities. Behavioral tests (Reward Anti-Saccade task to index cognitive control with/without reward modulation; Psychomotor Vigilance Test) and self-reports of mood/sleepiness will be collected every 2 h. Longitudinal on-line surveys will assess substance use every 6 months for the life of the grant. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Sleep

• NCT number: NCT05336084
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Pittsburgh
• Contact: Ronette Blake, MS
• Phone: (412) 443-3704
• Email: blakerg2@upmc.edu
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 4, 2022
• Completion date: June 30, 2025