PhD Scientific Days 2025

Mental Health Sciences II.

Investigating the First Night Effect in a Healthy Population as Part of a Multiday Observational Study

Előadó neve

Pierson-Bartel Róbert

Neptun code

CNBWA5

Előadó munkahelye

Institute of Behavioural Sciences

Előadó telefonszáma

+36 0706765910

Előadó e-mail címe

robert.b.pierson@gmail.com

Az előadás címe

Investigating the First Night Effect in a Healthy Population as Part of a Multiday Observational Study

Szerző(k) neve és munkahelye

Róbert Pierson-Bartel¹

1: Institute of Behavioural Sciences

Bemutatás módja

Szóbeli

Szekció

Mental Health Sciences II.

Language of the presentation

English

Preferred session

Mental Health Sciences

Összefoglaló szövege

Introduction: The First Night Effect (FNE) refers to an initial deterioration in sleep quality that is commonly observed during both laboratory and home-based sleep studies. It is characterized by prolonged sleep onset latency, reduced sleep efficiency, increased nighttime awakenings, and decreased REM sleep. These changes can bias sleep measurement outcomes, making it essential to understand how quickly sleep architecture stabilizes.
Aims: This study aims to investigate the progression and resolution of the first night effect on sleep architecture over seven nights in a healthy population using home EEG monitoring.
Methods: We analyzed sleep data from 270 participants in the BSETS database, each monitored over seven consecutive nights using the Dreem 2 EEG headband. Sleep quality and architecture were assessed using linear mixed-effects (LME) modeling in MATLAB, incorporating random intercepts to account for individual differences. Night-to-night changes were evaluated through post-hoc pairwise comparisons between consecutive nights.
Results: The first night effect on sleep quality subsided by the second recorded night. Sleep efficiency increased by 1.2%, while subjective sleep quality, measured by the Groningen Sleep Quality Scale, improved by 1.6 points. However, several sleep parameters changed gradually until the fourth night. Total sleep time increased by 20 minutes per night, REM sleep duration by 8 minutes, and N2 sleep by 9 minutes. While sleep onset time did not significantly shift, wake-up time was delayed across nights.
Conclusion: The first night effect impacts sleep quality only on the initial night, with improvements in both objective and subjective measures by the second night. However, full normalization of sleep architecture, including REM and lighter sleep stages, occurs gradually and is complete by the fourth night. These findings underscore the importance of a minimum four-night adaptation period in sleep studies, particularly when investigating REM-related or psychiatric-relevant outcomes, and support more robust clinical protocol design.
Funding: Supported by the professional funding of the university research scholarship program 2024-2.1.1-EKÖP-2024-00004, financed by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Fund through the Ministry of Culture and Innovation.

University

Semmelweis University

Supervisor

Dr. Peter Przemysław Ujma, Ph.D.

Publication of my abstract

I give consent to the publication of my abstract on the website of the congress.

phd.section.field

before finishing undergraduate studies (TDK, MD-PhD)

Kind

Szabad

Status

elfogadva

Accepted presentation method

szóbeli

Előadás fájl jóváhagyás

jóváhagyta

Előadó

9058

Start

09:30

End

09:45