Disrupting Deep Sleep Doesn’t Affect Luteinizing Hormone Secretion in Puberty

Results: An average of 68.1 ±10.7 (± SE) auditory stimuli were delivered to interrupt deep sleep during the disruption night, limiting deep sleep to only brief episodes (average length disrupted 1.3±0.2 min vs normal 7.1±0.8 min, p<0.001), and increasing the number of transitions between NREM, REM, and wake (disrupted 274.5±33.4 vs. normal 131.2±8.1, p=0.001). There were no differences in mean LH (normal: 3.2±0.4 vs. disrupted: 3.2±0.5 IU/L), LH pulse frequency (0.6±0.06 vs. 0.6±0.07 pulses/hr), or LH pulse amplitude (2.8±0.4 vs 2.8±0.4 IU/L) between the two nights. Poisson process modeling demonstrated that the accumulation of deep sleep in the 20 min before an LH pulse, whether consolidated or fragmented, was a significant predictor of LH pulse onset (p<0.001).

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