Growth hormone-releasing hormone and corticotropin-releasing hormone enhance non-rapid-eye-movement sleep after sleep deprivation

Abstract

. Growth hormone-releasing hormone and corticotropin-releasing hormone enhance non-rapid-eye-movement sleep after sleep deprivation. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 291: E549 -E556, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00641.2005.-The neuropeptides growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone (GHRH) and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) regulate sleep and nocturnal hormone secretion in a reciprocal fashion, at least in males. GHRH promotes sleep and GH and inhibits hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) hormones. CRH exerts opposite effects. In women, a sexual dimorphism was found because GHRH impairs sleep and stimulates HPA hormones. Sleep deprivation (SD) is the most powerful stimulus for inducing sleep. Studies in rodents show a key role of GHRH in sleep promotion after SD. The effects of GHRH and CRH on sleep-endocrine activity during the recovery night after SD are unknown. We compared sleep EEG, GH, and cortisol secretion between nights before and after 40 h of SD in 48 normal women and men aged 19 -67 yr. During the recovery night, GHRH, CRH, or placebo were injected repetitively. After placebo during the recovery night, non-rapid-eye-movement sleep (NREMS) and rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS) increased and wakefulness decreased compared with the baseline night. After GHRH, the increase of NREMS and the decrease of wakefulness were more distinct than after placebo. Also, after CRH, NREMS increased higher than after placebo, and a positive correlation was found between age and the baseline-related increase of slow-wave sleep. REMS increased after placebo and after GHRH, but not after CRH. EEG spectral analysis showed increases in the lower frequencies and decreases in the higher frequencies during NREMS after each of the treatments. Cortisol and GH did not differ between baseline and recovery nights after placebo. After GHRH, GH increased and cortisol decreased. Cortisol increased after CRH. No sex differences were found in these changes. Our data suggest that GHRH and CRH augment NREMS promotion after SD. Marked differences appear to exist in peptidergic sleep regulation between spontaneous and recovery sleep. event history analysis; recovery sleep; cortisol; peptides SLEEP DEPRIVATION (SD) is the most powerful method to promote sleep. Recovery sleep following SD is characterized by increases of non-rapid-eye-movement sleep (NREMS), EEG slow-wave activity (SWA), and rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS) and by decreases of sleep latency and the time spent awake compared with baseline conditions in humans (7) and in laboratory animals (8, 11). NREMS, particularly slow-wave sleep (SWS), and the nocturnal release of growth hormone (GH) are associated strictly, although not absolutely (37,41,44). After the selective 5-HT2 receptor antagonist ritanserin (14) and after ␥-hydroxybuyrate (42), both SWS and GH increase in normal male subjects. During the recovery night after SD, GH secretion was elevated in some (31), but not all (20), studies. These observations point to common regulators of sleep EEG and sleep-related GH secretio...

Hormones, hormonal agents, and neuropeptides involved in the neuroendocrine regulation of sleep in humans

“…An increase in NREMS and a decrease in wakefulness were observed during the recovery night in normal, sleep-deprived men and women after repetitive administration of GHRH. 23 On examining the effect of intranasal administration of GHRH in young and aged humans, Perras et al 22 found that intranasal GHRH reduced cortisol nadir concentrations at the beginning of sleep and reduced the sleep-induced elevation in GH concentrations during early sleep. SWS increased, with this influence primarily exerted addition, no change 14 or decrease in REMS during the first half of the night 18 has been observed.…”

“…administration of antibodies to GHRH decreases NREMS in patients with depression. 23 Affinity-purified antibodies to GHRH significantly suppress both NREMS and REMS for at least 12 hours during the light (rest) period and prevent the sleep rebound that normally occurs after 3 h of sleep deprivation. 28 While GH deficiency (GHD) often reflects hypothalamic GHRH deficiency in aged subjects, so far GHRH replacement therapy has not yielded consistent improvements in sleep, possibly due to lack of sustained activity throughout the night.…”

“…52 Conversely, in sleep-deprived healthy humans, CRH induces higher increases in NREMS if given during the recovery night compared to placebo. 23 The responsiveness of sleep EEG to CRH appears to increase during ageing, since sleep disruption…”

Effects of long-term continuous positive airway pressure on body composition and IGF1

“…Taken together, these data suggest that in addition to normal aging, sleep disturbances such as sleep apnea may substantially affect GH secretion and action, and thereby, have additional impact on the potential effects of CPAP treatment. Several studies have reported a sexual dimorphic interaction of GH axis activation with sleep (22)(23)(24), and both GH administration to healthy old persons (25,26) and GH therapy in patients with adult GHD syndrome (27) revealed that changes in LBM or adipose tissue depended on sex.…”

Sleep and Active Renin Levels – Interaction with Age, Gender, Growth Hormone and Cortisol

“…A total of 55 subjects had entered the study. Other parts of the study were reported recently [24] . Due to technical reasons, 8 subjects dropped out and were not included in the analyses.…”