Domain-Specific Circadian Rescue following Sleep Deprivation

Bowen Guo; Kaikai Yan; Yao Deng; Weiwei Zhao; Xing Chen; Chenye Xue; Ya Chai; Peng Quan; Namni Goel; Mathias Basner; Tianxin Mao; Hengyi Rao

doi:10.1093/sleep/zsag054

Domain-Specific Circadian Rescue following Sleep Deprivation

Sleep. 2026 Feb 27:zsag054. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsag054. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Bowen Guo^{1

2}, Kaikai Yan¹, Yao Deng^{3

4}, Weiwei Zhao¹, Xing Chen¹, Chenye Xue³, Ya Chai^{3

5

6}, Peng Quan^{3

7}, Namni Goel⁸, Mathias Basner⁹, Tianxin Mao¹, Hengyi Rao^{1

2

3

9}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research & Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior (Ministry of Education and Shanghai), School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
³ Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
⁶ Center for Neuroimaging, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
⁷ The First Dongguan Affiliated Hospital, School of Humanities and Management, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China.
⁸ Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁹ Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, Division of Sleep and Chronobiology, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

PMID: 41757508
DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsag054

Abstract

Study objectives: Circadian rhythms regulate sleep-wake cycles and modulate cognitive functions over a 24-hour period. Following sleep loss, certain cognitive performance partially rebounds in the early evening, a phenomenon known as circadian rescue. Yet, the magnitude and domain specificity of circadian rescue remain poorly understood. Here, we integrate experimental and meta-analytic approaches to differential contributions of circadian and homeostatic processes to cognitive rescue following sleep deprivation.

Methods: In Study 1, 54 healthy adults remained awake for 35 consecutive hours while repeatedly completing the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS). Performance dynamics were modeled using the two-process framework of sleep regulation. In Study 2, a meta-analysis of published data contextualized these findings across protocols.

Results: Results reveal domain-specific circadian recovery rates of 33.0%-52.1% for PVT, 45.7% for DSST, and 23.5% for KSS, indicating that subjective sleepiness is predominantly driven by homeostatic load, whereas objective cognitive performance retains significant circadian modulation under conditions of acute homeostatic pressure.

Conclusions: These findings clarify how circadian and homeostatic drives interact to shape cognitive task performance and subjective sleepiness outcomes under sleep loss, with practical implications for optimizing performance in fatigue-prone environments.

Keywords: circadian rescue; cognitive performance; homeostatic; sleep deprivation; two-process model.