Investigation of the usefulness of zaleplon at two doses to induce afternoon-sleep under noise interference and its effects on psychomotor performance and vestibular function

Liang-En Chen; An-Dong Zhao; Qing-Jun Zhang; Feng Wu; Zhao-Li Ge; Hua Ge; Hao Zhan

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Investigation of the usefulness of zaleplon at two doses to induce afternoon-sleep under noise interference and its effects on psychomotor performance and vestibular function

RESEARCH | Updated：2026-03-12

- Investigation of the usefulness of zaleplon at two doses to induce afternoon-sleep under noise interference and its effects on psychomotor performance and vestibular function
- Military Medical Research Vol. 3, Issue 1, Pages: 28-33(2016)
- Affiliations：
  
  Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Aviation Medicine, Air Force, Beijing 100142, China
- Author bio：
  
  *: zhanhaohy@sina.com
- Funds：
- DOI：
  CLC：
- Published：2016-03
- Accepted：
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Liang-En Chen, An-Dong Zhao, Qing-Jun Zhang, et al. Investigation of the usefulness of zaleplon at two doses to induce afternoon-sleep under noise interference and its effects on psychomotor performance and vestibular function[J]. Military Medical Research, 2016, 3(1): 28-33.
DOI：

Liang-En Chen, An-Dong Zhao, Qing-Jun Zhang, et al. Investigation of the usefulness of zaleplon at two doses to induce afternoon-sleep under noise interference and its effects on psychomotor performance and vestibular function[J]. Military Medical Research, 2016, 3(1): 28-33. DOI：

摘要

Abstract

Background:

Military operation personnel often suffer from sleep difficulty because of their work requirements. In this study

we investigated the efficacy of zaleplon at two doses to induce afternoon-sleep under noise interference and its effects on psychomotor performance and vestibular function; we subsequently established the optimal dosage regimen for military operation personnel.

Methods:

Twenty-two healthy young male volunteers were recruited for the study. Eight subjects took 10mg or 15mg of zaleplon and placebo alternately and then were exposed to noise. Changes in polysomnography (PSG) indices

including sleep latency (SL)

sleep efficiency (SE) and sleep structure

were recorded after drug administration. After awakening

the volunteers’ subjective judgments of sleep quality and sleepiness were measured. Eight volunteers underwent 3 psychomotor performance tests at a one-week interval

and the psychomotor performance tests were conducted before and after taking zaleplon and placebo. Six volunteers participated in the vestibular function test session

and parameters

including optokinetic nystagmus (OKN)

vestibular ocular reflex (VOR)

visual-vestibular ocular reflex (VVOR) and vestibular ocular reflex fixation suppression (VOR-Fix)

were detected by the same experimental design as described above. The data of sleep observations were subjected to one-way variance analysis.

Results:

Compared with the placebo group

SL was shortened significantly

and the scores of subjective sleep quality and sleep depth were clearly increased in the zaleplon 10mg group (

0.05). Moreover

the SE and the percent of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep were increased remarkably in the zaleplon 15mg group (

0.01). Furthermore

the SE

percent of REM sleep and scores of subjective sleep depth in the zaleplon 15mg group were significantly higher than in the zaleplon 10mg group (

0.05). The psychomotor performance did not change significantly after ingestion of 10mg or 15mg of zaleplon

whereas the OKN and VOR gains were lower in the two dose groups of zaleplon (

0.05) and restored to normal 3h after drug ingestion.

Conclusion:

Zaleplon is an ideal hypnotic for military personnel

and its hypnotic efficiency is dose-related under noise interference; a 15mg dose of zaleplon could provide significantly better sleep than a 10mg dose of zaleplon.

关键词

Keywords

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