Shorter sleep durations in adolescents reduce power density in a wide range of waking electroencephalogram frequencies

Despite sleep’s recognized biological importance, it has been remarkably difficult to demonstrate changes in brain physiology with reduced sleep durations. In a study of adolescents, we varied sleep durations by restricting time in bed for four nights of either 10, 8.5 or 7 h. Shorter sleep durations significantly decreased waking electroencephalogram (EEG) power in a wide range of frequencies with both eyes closed and eyes open in central and occipital leads. These findings suggest new research directions and raise the possibility that waking EEG power density could provide a non-invasive test for biologically sufficient sleep.