Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 8;45(9):zsac120.
doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsac120.

Sex moderates the effects of total sleep deprivation and sleep restriction on risk preference

Jeryl Y L Lim  1 , Johanna Boardman  1 , Jeff Dyche  2 , Clare Anderson  1 , David L Dickinson  3   4   5 , Sean P A Drummond  1
Affiliations

Sex moderates the effects of total sleep deprivation and sleep restriction on risk preference

Jeryl Y L Lim et al. Sleep. .

Abstract

Sleep loss has been shown to alter risk preference during decision-making. However, research in this area has largely focussed on the effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD), while evidence on the effects of sleep restriction (SR) or the potentially moderating role of sex on risk preference remains scarce and unclear. The present study investigated risky decision-making in 47 healthy young adults who were assigned to either of two counterbalanced protocols: well-rested (WR) and TSD, or WR and SR. Participants were assessed on the Lottery Choice Task (LCT), which requires a series of choices between two risky gambles with varying risk levels. Analyses on the pooled dataset indicated across all sleep conditions, participants were generally more risk-seeking when trying to minimise financial loss (LOSSES) than while trying to maximise financial gain (GAINS). On GAINS trials, female participants were more risk-averse during TSD and SR, whereas male participants remained unchanged. On LOSSES trials, female participants remained unchanged during TSD and SR, whereas male participants became more risk-seeking during TSD. Our findings suggest the relationship between sleep loss and risk preference is moderated by sex, whereby changes in risk preference after TSD or SR differ in men and women depending on whether the decision is framed in terms of gains or losses.

Keywords: decision-making; insufficient sleep; risk preference; sex; sleep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Study timeline of each condition. (A) Shows the timeline of the study protocol. LCT = Lottery Choice Task. All participants underwent a Well-Rested (WR) condition and were randomly assigned to either the Total Sleep Deprivation (TSD) or Sleep Restriction (SR) condition. The order in which participants completed their assigned sleep conditions was counterbalanced. Participants adhered to their habitual sleep-wake times during the at-home week. (B) Presents the sleep-wake schedules during testing week for each condition (nominal 8 am habitual wake time).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Lottery choice task paradigm examples. Examples of trials on the GAINS (A) and LOSSES (B) versions of the Lottery Choice Task, ordered by increasing difference in payoff variance between gambles (top to bottom). Participants were told there was an equal chance of drawing a red, blue, or yellow chip on each chosen gamble, and payoff values depended on the colour of the chip chosen. In each example depicted here, Gamble A is the safer choice due to a smaller variance across payoff values compared to Gamble B.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Least-square estimates of KSS scores (with SEM) of subjective sleepiness levels of participants in each sleep condition. Overall model R2 = .74. Error bars denote SEM. WR, well-rested; TSD, total sleep deprivation; SR, sleep restriction. TSD and SR results in significantly higher KSS scores, indicating subjects feel sleepier after sleep loss. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. Probability estimates obtained using Satterthwaite approximation for degrees of freedom (see Luke [60]).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Least-square estimates (with SEM, converted to probabilities) of participants’ likelihood to pick the safer gamble for GAINS trials on the Lottery Choice Task within each Condition, separated by Sex. Error bars denote SEM. WR, well-rested; TSD, total sleep deprivation; SR, sleep restriction. For female participants, both TSD and SR resulted in higher probabilities of picking the risk choice during GAINS trials on the Lottery Choice Task. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Least-square estimates (with SEM, converted to probabilities) of participants’ likelihood to pick the safer gamble for LOSSES trials on the Lottery Choice Task within each Condition, separated by Sex. Error bars denote SEM. WR = Well-rested. TSD, total sleep deprivation; SR, sleep restriction. For male participants, TSD resulted in a significantly lower probability of picking the Risk Choice during LOSSES trials on the Lottery Choice Task. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep and Sleep Disorders. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data_statistics.html. Published 2017, May 2. Accessed.
    1. Groeger JA, et al. . Sleep quantity, sleep difficulties and their perceived consequences in a representative sample of some 2000 British adults. J Sleep Res. 2004;13(4):359–371. - PubMed
    1. Kerkhof GA. Epidemiology of sleep and sleep disorders in The Netherlands. Sleep Med. 2017;30:229–239. - PubMed
    1. Adams RJ, et al. . Sleep health of Australian adults in 2016: results of the 2016 Sleep Health Foundation national survey. Sleep Health. 2017;3(1):35–42. - PubMed
    1. Caldwell JA. Fatigue in aviation. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2005;3(2):85–96. - PubMed

Publication types