Regulation of local sweating in sleep-deprived exercising humans

Abstract

Thermoregulatory sweating [total body (msw,b), chest (msw,c) and thigh (msw,t) sweating], body temperatures [oesophageal (T(oes)) and mean skin temperature (Tsk)] and heart rate were investigated in five sleep-deprived subjects (kept awake for 27 h) while exercising on a cycle (45 min at approximately 50% maximal oxygen consumption) in moderate heat (T(air) and T(wall) at 35 degrees C). The msw,c and msw,t were measured under local thermal clamp (Tsk,l), set at 35.5 degrees C. After sleep deprivation, neither the levels of body temperatures (T(oes), Tsk) nor the levels of msw,b, msw,c or msw,t differed from control at rest or during exercise steady state. During the transient phase of exercise (when Tsk and Tsk,l were unvarying), the msw,c and msw,t changes were positively correlated with those of T(oes). The slopes of the msw,c versus T(oes) or msw,t versus T(oes) relationships remained unchanged between control and sleep-loss experiments. Thus the slopes of the local sweating versus T(oes) relationships (msw,c and msw,t sweating data pooled which reached 1.05 (SEM 0.14) mg.cm-2.min-1.degree C-1 and 1.14 (SEM 0.18) mg.cm-2.min-1.degree C-1 before and after sleep deprivation) respectively did not differ. However, in our experiment, sleep deprivation significantly increased the T(oes) threshold for the onset of both msw,c and msw,t (+0.3 degrees C, P < 0.001). From our investigations it would seem that the delayed core temperature for sweating onset in sleep-deprived humans, while exercising moderately in the heat, is likely to have been due to alterations occurring at the central level.