Desynchronization of different physiological functions during three weeks of experimental nightshift with limited and unlimited sleep

Abstract

The re-entrainement of physiological functions after a phase-shifting of the waking and sleeping times is an important problem. Aschoff evaluated the data from an experiment of Halberg and coworkers concerning an intercontinental flight. In the first days after the sudden shift of sleeping time he found not only a phase difference between the sleeping time and the phase of the minimum of one physiological function — as Knauth and Rutenfranz have already shown — but also an internal desynchronization between two such functions.