Lo, J. C., Ong, J. L., Leong, R. L., Gooley, J. J., & Chee, M. W. (2015). Cognitive performance, sleepiness, and mood in partially sleep deprived adolescents: The need for sleep study. Sleep, 39(3), 687-98.
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Abstract
Study Objectives
To investigate the effects of sleep restriction (7 nights of 5 h time in bed [TIB]) on cognitive performance, subjective sleepiness, and mood in adolescents.
Methods
A parallel-group design was adopted in the Need for Sleep Study. Fifty-six healthy adolescents (25 males, age = 15-19 y) who studied in top high schools and were not habitual short sleepers were randomly assigned to Sleep Restriction (SR) or Control groups. Participants underwent a 2-w protocol consisting of 3 baseline nights (TIB = 9 h), 7 nights of sleep opportunity manipulation (TIB = 5 h for the SR and 9 h for the control groups), and 3 nights of recovery sleep (TIB = 9 h) at a boarding school. A cognitive test battery was administered three times each day.
Results
During the manipulation period, the SR group demonstrated incremental deterioration in sustained attention, working memory and executive function, increase in subjective sleepiness, and decrease in positive mood. Subjective sleepiness and sustained attention did not return to baseline levels even after 2 recovery nights. In contrast, the control group maintained baseline levels of cognitive performance, subjective sleepiness, and mood throughout the study. Incremental improvement in speed of processing, as a result of repeated testing and learning, was observed in the control group but was attenuated in the sleep-restricted participants, who, despite two recovery sleep episodes, continued to perform worse than the control participants.
Conclusions
A week of partial sleep deprivation impairs a wide range of cognitive functions, subjective alertness, and mood even in high-performing high school adolescents. Some measures do not recover fully even after 2 nights of recovery sleep.
Keywords
Adolescents; cognitive performance; mood; partial sleep deprivation; sleepiness
MeSH Terms
Adolescent
Affect/physiology*
Attention/physiology
Cognition/physiology*
Executive Function/physiology
Female
Humans
Male
Memory, Short-Term/physiology
Polysomnography
Sleep Deprivation/physiopathology*
Sleep Stages/physiology*
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