A 28 hour day, sleep and single beat period : revisiting forced desynchrony studies?

Eleven healthy males lived in a time isolation unit for 12 days to assess the effects of the homeostatic and circadian processes on sleep architecture over a single beat period. Participants were scheduled to seven 28h experimental days (9.3h sleep, 18.7h wake) with sleep periods occurring at varying times across the endogenous circadian cycle. Results demonstrate the circadian and homeostatic influences on sleep architecture are detectable over a single beat period. Future studies looking at the effects and interactions of the circadian and homeostatic processes on sleep may not require the use of more than one beat period.