Objective cognitive functioning in self-reported habitual short sleepers not reporting daytime dysfunction: examination of impulsivity via delay discounting

Abstract

Study objectives: (1) Examine performance on an objective measure of reward-related cognitive impulsivity (delay discounting) among self-reported habitual short sleepers and medium (i.e. recommended 7-9 hours) length sleepers either reporting or not reporting daytime dysfunction; (2) Inform the debate regarding what type and duration of short sleep (e.g. 21 to 24 hours of total sleep deprivation, self-reported habitual short sleep duration) meaningfully influences cognitive impulsivity; (3) Compare the predictive utility of sleep duration and perceived dysfunction to other factors previously shown to influence cognitive impulsivity via delay discounting performance (age, income, education, and fluid intelligence).

Methods: We analyzed data from 1190 adults from the Human Connectome Project database. Participants were grouped on whether they reported habitual short (≤6 hours) vs. medium length (7-9 hours) sleep duration and whether they perceived daytime dysfunction using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

Results: All short sleepers exhibited increased delay discounting compared to all medium length sleepers, regardless of perceived dysfunction. Of the variables examined, self-reported sleep duration was the strongest predictor of delay discounting behavior between groups and across all 1190 participants.

Conclusions: Individuals who report habitual short sleep are likely to exhibit increased reward-related cognitive impulsivity regardless of perceived sleep-related daytime impairment. Therefore, there is a reason to suspect that these individuals exhibit more daytime dysfunction, in the form of reward-related cognitive impulsivity, than they may assume. Current findings suggest that assessment of sleep duration over the prior month has meaningful predictive utility for human reward-related impulsivity.

Figure 1.

Global differences in monetary delay discounting between self-reported short sleepers, medium length sleepers, and their subtypes. All HSS = all habitual short sleepers; All MLS = all medium length sleepers; HSS-NRD = habitual short sleepers not reporting daytime dysfunction; HSS-RD = habitual short sleepers reporting daytime dysfunction; MLS-NRD = medium length sleepers not reporting daytime dysfunction; MLS-RD = medium length sleepers reporting daytime dysfunction; Error bars = standard error of the mean; n.s. = not significant. **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. d = Cohen’s d.