A single night of sleep restriction impairs decision-making reaction time but not heart rate variability

BELLONE GIANNINA; PLANO SANTIAGO ANDRÉS; TORTELLO CAMILA; GALLARDO JOSÉ; LLMEDO MARIANO; SIMONELLI GUIDO; GOLOMBEK DIEGO ANDRÉS.; VIGO DANIEL

Punta del Este

Congreso; XVII Congreso Internacional de Medicina del Sueño FLASS; 2018

Federación Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Sueño

Introduction: Total sleep deprivation impairs attention and working memory, but it also affects other functions, such as long-term memory and decision-making. Few studies have addressed whether a single night sleep restriction period affects cognitive and autonomic function. Objective: To compare alertness, decision-making and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) between one-night sleep restricted and non-restricted subjects and to correlate alertness, decision-making and HRV outcomes with fatigue symptoms. Methods: A total of 25 healthy volunteers participated in the study. Two experimental groups (restricted, n=10 and non-restricted, n=15) were studied. Sleep duration was confirmed with actigraphy. Alertness was assessed through a Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT). We administered a computerized Decision Making Test (Monterde-i-Bort?s TID), that quantified number of attempts (NA), number of successes (NS), success rate (SR), risk assumption (RA) and response time (RT). Fatigue was assessed through a Fatigue symptom survey. The autonomic nervous system activity was analyzed through heart rate variability (HRV). We used T-tests to assess between group differences and Pearson?s correlation tests to explore potential correlations between fatigue symptoms and cognitive and autonomic outcomes. Results: No significant differences in PVT reaction times were found between groups, but sleep restricted individuals had slower decision making reaction times (1.18±0.13s) than non-restricted ones (0.71±0.03s) (p