Mitigating Sleep Loss: Assessment of Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Abstract
This report presents a summary of the research activities, major accomplishments, presentations supported by ONR grant N00014-09-C-0583 to Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc. Key contribution of this project was to assess the efficacy of Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA/DHA) in mitigating the cognitive,mood, and performance aspects of sleep loss. Both acute sleep deprivation of 48 hr in a civilian population and ongoing sleep chronic sleep debt accumulation in a military population were investigated. Results found that Omega-3 fatty acids were able to preserve baseline performance, mood and neurophysiology through 36-39 of complete deprivation. In the military population, undergoing naturally occurring sleep loss, Omega was also able to support improved performance compared to placebo, up through an average of 31 hr of sleep loss. Additional physiological metrics from EEG and cytokines support the hypothesis that the improved performance is due to reduced inflammatory activity with Omega supplementation. These data suggest that Omega-3 fatty acids provide a viable option to reduce the effects of sleep deprivation that naturally occurs throughout military training and operations, however additional data regarding performance in military relevant tasks would be required before implementation force-wide.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 15, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA545126
Entities
People
- R. R. Johnsons