A crossover study evaluating the sex‐dependent and sensitizing effects of sleep deprivation using a nociceptive test battery in healthy subjects

AIM: We assessed whether total sleep deprivation (TSD) in combination with pain tests yields a reliable method to assess altered pain thresholds, which subsequently may be used to investigate (novel) analgesics in healthy subjects. METHODS: This was a two‐part randomized crossover study in 24 healthy men and 24 women. Subjects were randomized 1:1 to first complete a day of nonsleep‐deprived nociceptive threshold testing, followed directly by a TSD night and morning of sleep‐deprived testing, or first complete the TSD night and morning sleep‐deprived testing, returning 7 days later for a day of nonsleep‐deprived testing. A validated pain test battery (heat, pressure, electrical burst and stair, cold pressor pain test and conditioned pain modulation [CPM] paradigm) and sleep questionnaires were performed. RESULTS: Subjects were significantly sleepier after TSD as measured using sleepiness questionnaires. Cold pressor pain tolerance (PTT, estimate of difference [ED] −10.8%, 95% CI −17.5 to −3.6%), CPM PTT (ED −0.69 mA, 95% CI −1.36 to −0.03 mA), pressure PTT (ED −11.2%, 95% CI −17.5% to −4.3%) and heat pain detection thresholds (ED ‐0.74 °C, 95% CI −1.34 to −0.14 °C) were significantly decreased after TSD compared to the baseline morning assessment in the combined analysis (men + women). Heat hyperalgesia was primarily driven by an effect of TSD in men, whereas cold and pressure hyperalgesia was primarily driven by the effects of TSD observed in women. CONCLUSIONS: TSD induced sex‐dependent hyperalgesia on cold, heat and pressure pain, and CPM response. These results suggest that the TSD model may be suitable to evaluate (novel) analgesics in early‐phase drug studies.