Research progress on the first-night effect in polysomnography studies

Abstract

The first-night effect (FNE) is a prevalent occurrence in sleep monitoring that can impact the accuracy of monitoring results, encompassing both FNE and reverse first-night effect. FNE is characterized by extended sleep onset latency, reduced total sleep time, diminished sleep efficiency, prolonged wake-time after sleep onset, among other manifestations. The physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying FNE are primarily linked to acute stress induced by the environment and heightened levels of anxiety, involving the default mode network. FNE exhibits varying manifestations and impacts across individuals of different age groups and genetic predispositions. We also discuss the influence of placebo and sedative-hypnotics on FNE. Understanding these factors is crucial for guiding clinicians and technologists in standardizing polysomnography (PSG) practices and improving the accuracy of sleep disorder diagnoses.

Keywords

age effects / clinical manifestations / disease effects / first-night effect / physiological and psychological mechanisms / sedative-hypnotics

References

[1] Sprajcer M, Gupta C, Roach G, Sargent C. Can we put the first night effect to bed? An analysis based on a large sample of healthy adults. Chronobiol Int. 2022;39(12):1567-1573.

[2] Hof ZBA, Kellmann M, Jakowski S. The first-night effect in elite sports: an initial glance on polysomnography in home-based settings. Front Psychol. 2021;12:641451. Published 2021 Mar 25.

[3] Browman CP, Cartwright RD. The first-night effect on sleep and dreams. Biol Psychiatry. 1980;15(5):809-812.

[4] LI Huan, CHEN Qi, FANG Fang. Research progress of first night effect in sleep disorder related diseases. Chin Med. 2022,17(5):772-775. https://doi.org/10.3760/j.issn.1673-4777.2022.05.031

[5] RONG Junhua, HAO Jing, Wang B. Correlation between first-night effect of polysomnography and alertness in patients with mild obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome. China Drugs Clin. 2020, 20(21):3652-3653.

[6] Ding L, Chen B, Dai Y, Li Y. A meta-analysis of the first-night effect in healthy individuals for the full age spectrum. Sleep Med. 2022;89:159-165.

[7] Ma N, Ning Q, Li M, Hao C. The first-night effect on the instability of stage N2: evidence from the activity of the central and autonomic nervous systems. Brain Sci. 2023;13(4):667. Published 2023 Apr 16.

[8] Shirota A, Kamimura M, Kishi A, Adachi H, Taniike M, Kato T. Discrepancies in the time course of sleep stage dynamics, electroencephalographic activity and heart rate variability over sleep cycles in the adaptation night in healthy young adults. Front Physiol. 2021;12:623401. Published 2021 Mar 24.

[9] Le Bon O, Staner L, Hoffmann G, et al. The first-night effect may last more than one night. J Psychiatr Res. 2001, 35(3):165-172.

[10] Lorenzo JL, Barbanoj MJ. Variability of sleep parameters across multiple laboratory sessions in healthy young subjects: the "very first night effect. Psychophysiology. 2002;39(4):409-413.

[11] Cox R, Rösler L, Weber FD, et al. The first-night effect and the consistency of short sleep in insomnia disorder. J Sleep Res. 2024;33(1):e13897.

[12] Driller MW, Dunican IC. No familiarization or ‘first-night effect’ evident when monitoring sleep using wrist actigraphy. J Sleep Res. 2020;30(4). Published online December 2.

[13] Fuller KH, Waters WF, Binks PG, Anderson T. Generalized anxiety and sleep architecture: a polysomnographic investigation. Sleep. 1997;20(5):370-376.

[14] N-F Wu. A study on the correlation between anxiety and sleep structure in patients with anxiety disorders. World J Sleep Med. 2024, 11(1):9-12.

[15] Mayeli A, Janssen SA, Sharma K, Ferrarelli F. Examining first night effect on sleep parameters with hd-EEG in healthy individuals. Brain Sci. 2022;12(2):233. Published 2022 Feb 8.

[16] Jackson RL, Humphreys GF, Rice GE, Binney RJ, Lambon Ralph MA. A network-level test of the role of the co-activated default mode network in episodic recall and social cognition. Cortex. 2023;165:141-159.

[17] Soares C, Gonzalo G, Castelhano J, Castelo-Branco M. The relationship between the default mode network and the theory of mind network as revealed by psychedelics -a meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2023;152:105325.

[18] Yeshurun Y, Nguyen M, Hasson U. The default mode network: where the idiosyncratic self meets the shared social world. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2021;22(3):181-192.

[19] Vanini G, Torterolo P. Sleep-wake neurobiology. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2021;1297:65-82.

[20] Tamaki M, Sasaki Y. Surveillance during REM sleep for the first-night effect. Front Neurosci. 2019;13:1161. Published 2019 Oct 29.

[21] Tamaki M, Bang JW, Watanabe T, Sasaki Y. Night watch in one brain hemisphere during sleep associated with the first-night effect in humans. Curr Biol. 2016;26(9):1190-1194.

[22] De la Pena A. Toward a psychophysiologic conceptualization of insomnia. Sleep Disord diagnosis Treat. 1978, 101-143.

[23] Perez MN, Salas RME. Insomnia. Contin. 2020;26(4):1003-1015.

[24] Hauri PJ. A cluster analysis of insomnia. Sleep. 1983;6(4):326-338.

[25] Yao Z, Zhang BX, Chen H, Jiang XW, Qu WM, Huang ZL. Acute or chronic exposure to corticosterone promotes wakefulness in mice. Brain Sci. 2023;13(10):1472. Published 2023 Oct 18.

[26] Xu YX, Liu GY, Ji ZZ, et al. Restraint stress induced anxiety and sleep in mice. Front Psychiatry. 2023;14:1090420. Published 2023 Apr 12.

[27] Xu Q, Xu XH, Qu WM, Lazarus M, Urade Y, Huang ZL. A mouse model mimicking human first night effect for the evaluation of hypnotics. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2014;116:129-136.

[28] Kostin A, Alam MA, Saevskiy A, Yang C, Golshani P, Alam MN. Calcium dynamics of the ventrolateral preoptic GABAergic neurons during spontaneous sleep-waking and in response to homeostatic sleep demands. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(9):8311. Published 2023 May 5.

[29] Kostin A, Alam MA, Saevskiy A, McGinty D, Alam MN. Activation of the ventrolateral preoptic neurons projecting to the perifornical-hypothalamic area promotes sleep: DREADD activation in wild-type rats. Cells. 2022;11(14):2140. Published 2022 Jul 7.

[30] Byun JH, Kim KT, Moon HJ, Motamedi GK, Cho YW. The first night effect during polysomnography, and patients’ estimates of sleep quality. Psychiatry Res. 2019;274:27-29.

[31] Vanek J, Prasko J, Genzor S, et al. Insomnia and emotion regulation. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2020;41(5):255-269.

[32] Hu S, Shi L, Li Z, et al. First-night effect in insomnia disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of polysomnographic findings. J Sleep Res. 2024;33(1):e13942.

[33] Roeder M, Bradicich M, Schwarz EI, et al. Night-to-night variability of respiratory events in obstructive sleep apnoea: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Thorax. 2020;75(12):1095-1102.

[34] Gaisl T, Baumgartner P, Rejmer P, et al. Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in patients with thoracic aortic aneurysm: a prospective, parallel cohort study. Respiration. 2020;99(1):19-27.

[35] Sforza E, Roche F, Chapelle C, Pichot V. Internight variability of apnea-hypopnea index in obstructive sleep apnea using ambulatory polysomnography. Front Physiol. 2019;10:849. Published 2019 Jul 9.

[36] Zhang J, Lam SP, Ho CK, et al. Diagnosis of REM sleep behavior disorder by video-polysomnographic study: is one night enough? Sleep. 2008;31(8):1179-1185.

[37] Haraki S, Tsujisaka A, Toyota R, et al. First night effect on polysomnographic sleep bruxism diagnosis varies among young subjects with different degrees of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity. Sleep Med. 2020;75:395-400.

[38] Virtanen I, Kalleinen N, Urrila AS, Polo-Kantola P. First-night effect on sleep in different female reproductive states. Behav Sleep Med. 2018;16(5):437-447.

[39] Suetsugi M, Mizuki Y, Yamamoto K, Uchida S, Watanabe Y. The effect of placebo administration on the first-night effect in healthy young volunteers. Prog Neuro-Psychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2007;31(4):839-847.

[40] Hu S, Chen J, Li Y, et al. The influence of placebo administration on the first-night effect in patients with insomnia disorder. Sleep Med. 2020;72:138-143.

[41] Roehrs T, Vogel G, Sterling W, et al. Dose effects of temazepam in transient insomnia. Arzneimittelforschung. 1990;40(8):859-862.

[42] Roth T, Roehrs T, Vogel G. Zolpidem in the treatment of transient insomnia: a double-blind, randomized comparison with placebo. Sleep. 1995;18(4):246-251.

[43] Erman MK, Loewy D, Scharf MB. Comparison of temazepam 7.5 mg with temazepam 15 mg for the treatment of transient insomnia. Curr Med Res Opin. 2004;20(4):441-449.

[44] Rosenberg R, Caron J, Roth T, Amato D. An assessment of the efficacy and safety of eszopiclone in the treatment of transient insomnia in healthy adults. Sleep Med. 2005;6(1):15-22.

[45] Roth T, Stubbs C, Walsh JK. Ramelteon (TAK-375), a selective MT1/MT2-receptor agonist, reduces latency to persistent sleep in a model of transient insomnia related to a novel sleep environment. Sleep. 2005;28(3):303-307. [published correction appears in Sleep. 2006 Apr 1;29(4):417. Dosage error in article text].

[46] Rosenberg R, Roth T, Scharf MB, Lankford DA, Farber R. Efficacy and tolerability of indiplon in transient insomnia. J Clin Sleep Med. 2007;3(4):374-379.

[47] Zammit G, Schwartz H, Roth T, Wang-Weigand S, Sainati S, Zhang J. The effects of ramelteon in a first-night model of transient insomnia. Sleep Med. 2009;10(1):55-59.

[48] Roth T, Heith Durrence H, Jochelson P, et al. Efficacy and safety of doxepin 6 mg in a model of transient insomnia. Sleep Med. 2010;11(9):843-847.

[49] Hof ZBA, Kellmann M, Jakowski S. The first-night effect in elite sports: an initial glance on polysomnography in home-based settings. Front Psychol. 2021;12:641451. Published 2021 Mar 25.

[50] Matsui K, Yoshiike T, Nagao K, et al. Association of subjective quality and quantity of sleep with quality of life among a general population. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(23):12835. Published 2021 Dec 6.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2024 2024 The Author(s). Sleep Research published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Chinese Sleep Research Society.