In the two-process model of sleep regulation, a homeostatic process S increases during waking and declines exponentially during sleep; it interacts with a circadian process C to determine the timing and architecture of sleep.11 This model can also be used to describe possible disturbances in either process during depression (Figure 1A).

The clinical sleep disturbance with early morning awakening could arise from an impaired Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical build-up of S during waking (diminished sleep pressure) or an earlier timing of process C. There are a number of sleep manipulations that improve clinical state (sec below and Table I).The rapid antidepressant effect of one night’s sleep deprivation is proposed to act by a short-term increase in process S to normal levels.40

The slower antidepressant effect of a phase advance of the sleep-wake cycle8 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical may be related to more gradual shifts towards a correct phase relationship with respect to process C. Other possibile abnormalities could lie in the decline of S during sleep, or Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical circadian period, phase, or amplitude (process C). Figure 1. A. The two-process model of sleep regulation, considered in terms of what could go wrong in depression. The homeostatic component (process S) builds up during wakefulness and declines during sleep. The circadian pacemaker (process C) ticks along at its … Table I. Chronobiological therapies of major depression. Therapies in italics are for one or two studies only.

TSD, total sleep deprivation; PSD, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 4-mu nmr partial sleep deprivation; rTMS, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation; SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake … How to measure process C and S The model helps clarify which biological markers could be measured to test these hypotheses (Figure 1B). Correct methodology is important to define experimental conditions where masking is reduced. There are two major approaches, both requiring subjects Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to undergo demanding and highly controlled protocols. The first protocol is the “constant routine,” in which subjects remain awake during an entire 24-h cycle or longer, with external and behavioral conditions constant (very low light levels not to affect the circadian pacemaker, supine posture Idoxuridine in bed, and regular small isocaloric meals). The constant routine provides information about process C: amplitude and phase estimates of rhythms in, for example, melatonin, Cortisol, and core body temperature.18 Only such parameters that are little affected by sleep deprivation are valid as circadian markers. The second protocol is “forced desynchrony,” in which subjects live on very long or very short sleep-wake cycles, while the clock remains at its endogenous period, somewhat longer than 24 h. This protocol allows quantification of many measures with respect to either time of day (process C) or to duration of prior wakefulness (process S).