Loss of negative priming following sleep deprivation

It has been argued that one night of sleep loss in young healthy adults produces changes similar to that associated with normal, healthy ageing—in particular, that young sleep-deprived adults perform similarly to 60-year-old sleep-satiated adults on some tasks of frontal lobe function. This proposition was examined using a protocol viewed by many to be a direct probe of nonvolitional attention mechanisms associated with frontal lobe function. A negative priming (NP) procedure was used to compare performance between non-sleep-deprived (NSD) and sleep-deprived (SD, 34 hr) young, healthy adults. This protocol allowed for exploration of two theories of the NP effect based on inhibitory or memorial processes. Under conditions believed to facilitate inhibitory processes a normal NP effect was found for NSD(16 ms) and SD (9 ms) participants. Under conditions believed to rely on memorial processes there was no NPeffect following SD, compared with a normal NP effect for NSD participants (11 ms). Distractor interference was also greater following SD. These findings do not suggest a similar pattern of change following sleep loss in healthy young adults to that of normal, healthy, non-sleep-deprived aged groups.     

Self-reported arousal during sleep deprivation and its relation to performance and physiological variables

Bohlin, G. & Kjellberg, A. Self-reported arousal during sleep deprivation and its relation to performance and physiological variables. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 78–86.-Thayer's (1967) self-report inventory was translated and subjected to factor analysis. A four factor solution, slightly deviant from Thayer's, was adopted. The factors were labelled Sleep-Wakefulness, Stress, Euphoria, and Energy. Twenty Ss took part in a sleep deprivation (SD) experiment, which included physiological (EEG, skin conductance, body temperature), and reaction time (RT) recordings. All four factors showed decreasing trends over the night of SD, and with the exception of the Stres Factor, they were correlated with body temperature variations. The ratings in Sleep-Wakefulness and Energy were significantly lowered as a result of SD. The effect of SD upon these factors was also correlated with the effect upon the RT task and the physiological variables. From these results a model for phenomenological arousal was proposed and discussed.     

The effects of sleep deprivation and incentives on human performance

Summary This study explores whether KR (knowledge of results) and reward compensate for the negative joint effects of sleep deprivation and signal degradation in a choice-reaction task. The negative effect of signal degradation on performance was aggravated by sleep loss and time-on-task, whereas KR improved performance, especially when signals were degraded. Reward changed the effects of time-on-task owing to lack of sleep. Performance was also improved by a brief task interruption after 30 minutes' work, with 5 more minutes to go. These results can be interpreted in terms of the performance model of Sanders (1983), which links energetic mechanisms to stages of information processing. A lack of energetic supply from the arousal mechanism to perceptual processing, induced by signal degradation, sleep deprivation, and time-on-task, was effectively counteracted by KR: KR enables the mobilization of effort to compensate for this lack of arousal. The relation between reward and KR is not yet clear. The interruption effect suggests that the influence of time-on-task is not due to loss of arousal, but causes a reallocation of resources by effort.     

Avoidance performance in rat enhanced by postlearning paradoxical sleep deprivation

This series of experiments investigates possible relations between increases in paradoxical sleep (PS), persisting for several days after an avoidance training, and improvement of retention performance that occurred 3 days following partial training in a brightness discrimination Y-maze shock-avoidance task. Sprague-Dawley rats were trained in the Y-maze and PS deprived for 24 h either immediately or 24, 48, or 72 h following initial training. Contrary to what was expected, the results indicated that PSD immediately following the training session enhanced the avoidance performance after a 7-day retention interval. PSD at later times had no effect. Experiment 2 indicated that this effect was obtained only for PS-deprived animals and not for those placed in the PSD situation, but on larger platforms. Thus enhancement of the avoidance performance was not due to increases in stress or arousal caused by PSD-associated factors. Experiment 3 showed that the facilitative effect of a non-delayed 24-h PSD was obtained immediately thereafter as well as 24 h later, demonstrating that this effect was not due to any PS rebound which might have occurred following the PSD. Alternative explanations for these unexpected results are discussed.     

Effects of sleep deprivation on performance and EEG spectral analysis in young adults

Nine totally sleep deprived (TSD) and nine control subjects were evaluated with a complete battery for attention and memory performance. Frontal and temporal EEGs (5 min, eyes closed) were also recorded before and after the night. TSD subjects exhibited three performance deficits: learning the Pursuit Rotor Task, implicit recall of paired words, and distractibility on the Brown-Peterson Test. Relative to evening recordings, control subjects showed decreased morning absolute powers in all electrodes for all frequencies except for Frontal delta; TSD subjects showed increased Frontal and Temporal theta and Frontal beta. These results show that motor procedural, implicit memory, and working memory are sensitive to one night of TSD, and that Frontal and Temporal theta spectral power seem to discriminate between a night with sleep from a night without.     

Absorbed in sleep: Dissociative absorption as a predictor of sleepiness following sleep deprivation in two high-functioning samples

In recent years, a labile sleep-wake cycle has been implicated as a cause for dissociative experiences, and studies show that dissociation is elevated following sleep deprivation. Dissociative individuals may find it harder to regulate sleepiness in the face of sleep disruption. Although there is significant variability in reactions to sleep deprivation, research on trait predictors is scarce. The present study examined the ability of trait dissociation to prospectively predict sleepiness following sleep loss and recovery sleep. Two high-functioning samples, namely, Remotely Piloted Aircraft officers (N = 29) and Air Force jet pilots (N = 57) completed state and trait questionnaires assessing sleep and dissociation before and after full or partial sleep loss. Dissociative absorption was a consistent predictor of an increase in sleepiness following sleep loss and following recovery sleep, controlling for baseline sleepiness levels. We discuss the findings in light of a difficulty to regulate and monitor consciousness states.     

The effects of chronic sleep reduction on the performance of cognitive tasks sensitive to sleep deprivation

In four sleep loss experiments we aimed, first, to compare performance during long-term sleep reduction with performance during short-term total sleep deprivation, and second, to measure the effects of both methods of sleep loss on ability to ignore distracting irrelevant stimuli, using a finding embedded figures test (FEFT). Logical reasoning, auditory vigilance and finding embedded figures tasks were shown to be significantly sensitive to one night's sleep deprivation. However, in one sleep reduction study subjects reduced to a mean of 5.2 hours sleep per night for 4 weeks showed no performance deficits on logical reasoning. In a second sleep reduction study subjects reduced to a mean of 4.3 hours sleep per night for 4 nights, and subjects reduced to a mean of 5.3 hours sleep per night for 18 nights, showed no performance deficits on logical reasoning or auditory vigilance, despite their reports of severe increases in subjective sleepiness and reduced concentration. Both these sleep reduction groups, though, did show decrements on the FEFT, which we interpret in terms of dearousal increasing distractibility, which the sleep-reduced subjects could not overcome with effort, as they did with the other tests.     

The structure of mood: A comparison between sleep deprivation and normal wakefulness conditions

The stability of the factor structure of mood was examined under two different experimental conditions, sleep deprivation and normal wakefulness In the first phase of the study, two different forms of a mood scale were administered to several college classes, and the ratings for each scale were intercorrelated and factored Eight interpretable factors emerged from each analysis, and the two sets of factors were highly congruent. In the second phase of the study subjects completed the mood ratings after staying awake all night or after getting a good night's rest Comparisons between the means for the two groups showed significant differences on 26 of the 44 variables included in the scale The scores for the sleep-deprived group were then intercorrelated and factored, and the factor structure was compared with the relevant factor structure obtained in the first phase of the study The results of the comparison showed that six of the eight factors appeared under both conditions of sleep deprivation and normal wakefulness Additional analysis indicated that a seventh factor appeared, but in the guise of different variables The only factor which failed to appear under sleep deprivation was elation. It was concluded that although variable ratings showed high sensitivity to the experimental operations, the basic structure of the underlying mood states remained remarkably stable The results indicate that the search for a list of basic mood states may be quite fruitful An important methodological implication was that a variable may be selected to measure a mood under various experimental operations with the assurance that the nature of the mood to be measured does not change as a result of those operations     

Effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance by United States Air Force pilots

This study examined the effects of 35 h of continuous sleep deprivation on performance in a variety of cognitive tasks as well as simulated flight. Ten United States Air Force pilots completed the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB), Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), and Operation Span Task (OSPAN), as well as simulated flight at 3 h intervals over a 35 h sleep deprivation period. Performance declined on all tests after about 18–20 h of continuous sleep deprivation, although the degree to which performance degraded varied. During the second half of the sleep deprivation period, performance on the simulated flight was predicted by PVT and OSPAN reasonably well but much less so by the MATB. Variance from optimal flight performance was predicted by both PVT and OSPAN but each measure added incremental validity to the prediction. The two measures together accounted for 58% of the variance in flight performance in the second half of the sleep deprivation period.     

Effects of slow-release caffeine and a nap on driving simulator performance after partial sleep deprivation

A driving simulator was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a 30-min. nap and 300-mg slow-release caffeine as countermeasures to drivers' sleepiness induced by partial sleep deprivation. 12 participants were allowed 45 hr. time in bed at the laboratory. Driving performance then was measured twice--at 9 a.m. and at 1 p.m.--by a 45-min. driving task on a simulator. Subjective sleepiness/alertness and mood were assessed four times on the Stanford Sleepiness Scale and the Profile of Mood States. Driving performance was assessed as Lane Drifting, Speed Deviation, and Accident Liability. A 30-min. nap opportunity and 300 mg of slow-release caffeine both were successful in counteracting drivers' sleepiness. The remedial effect of slow-release caffeine lasted longer than that of the nap, that is, it was also effective in the afternoon session. This suggests that slow-release caffeine represents a valuable countermeasure that, in the case of partial sleep deprivation, is preferred to a nap when sleepiness has to be counteracted for a longer time.