The effect of one night's sleep deprivation on adolescent neurobehavioral performance

Abstract

Study objectives: To investigate the effects of one night's sleep deprivation on neurobehavioral functioning in adolescents.

Design: Participants completed a neurobehavioral test battery measuring sustained attention, reaction speed, cognitive processing speed, sleepiness, and fatigue every 2 h during wakefulness. Baseline performance (defined as those test bouts between 09:00 and 19:00 on days 2 and 3, following two 10-h sleep opportunities) were compared to performance at the same clock time the day following total sleep deprivation.

Setting: The sleep laboratory at the Centre for Sleep Research.

Participants: Twelve healthy adolescents (6 male), aged 14-18 years (mean = 16.17, standard deviation = 0.83).

Measurements and results: Sustained attention, reaction speed, cognitive processing speed, and subjective sleepiness were all significantly worse following one night without sleep than following 10-h sleep opportunities (all main effects of day, P < 0.05). Sleep deprivation led to increased variability on objective performance measures. There were between-subjects differences in response to sleep loss that were task-specific, suggesting that adolescents may not only vary in terms of the degree to which they are affected by sleep loss but also the domains in which they are affected.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that one night of total sleep deprivation has significant deleterious effects upon neurobehavioral performance and subjective sleepiness. These factors impair daytime functioning in adolescents, leaving them at greater risk of poor academic and social functioning and accidents and injuries.

Keywords: adolescence; attention; cognition; sleep; sleepiness.

Figure 1

Schematic diagram of the study protocol. Time (24 h) is on the horizontal axis, and the vertical axis displays the 4 days of the study (adaptation, baseline day 1, baseline day 2, sleep deprivation day). Sleep opportunities are in black and wake times are in yellow. Pink crosses (X) indicate the timing of practice test batteries, red crosses indicate neurobehavioral test bouts, and PSG indicates the timing of PSG set-up in the evening.

Figure 2

The estimated marginal means (± standard error) of Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) lapses at each time point across baseline and sleep deprivation days.

Figure 3

The estimated marginal means (± standard error) of Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) fastest 10% reaction time at each time point across baseline and sleep deprivation days.

Figure 4

The estimated marginal means (± standard error) of number of Digit Symbol Substitution Task (DSST) correct responses at each time point across baseline and sleep deprivation days.

Figure 5

The estimated marginal means (± standard error) of sleepiness scores on the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) at each time point across baseline and sleep deprivation days.

Figure 6

Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) lapses per test bout for each participant at each time point.

Figure 7

Ranked mean scores for each participant on the (A) Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), (B) Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) lapses, (C) PVT fastest 10% reaction times, and (D) Digit Symbol Substitution Task (DSST) following sleep deprivation. Scores were ranked with individuals showing the best performance on the left of the x-axis and those with the worst performance on the right. Data were averaged from test bouts occurring from 09:00 until 19:00 on the sleep deprivation day. Pearson correlations: PVT lapses and DSST: r = -0.45, P = 0.14, PVT lapses and fastest RT: r = 0.72, P = 0.009, lapses and KSS: r = 0.53, P = 0.079, fastest RT and DSST: r = -0.52, P = 0.085, fastest RT and KSS: r = 0.57, P = 0.054, DSST and KSS: r = -0.79, P = 0.002.