Correlates of Performances on Computerized Attention Tasks in Patients with Insomnia Disorder

Abstract

Objective: Although daytime dysfunction is highly correlated with insomnia disorder, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are poorly understood, and previous studies have not produced consistent results. Thus, the present study compared the attention performance of insomnia patients with that of normal controls to investigate the association of various clinical symptoms with attention in insomnia patients. Methods: The present study included 30 patients with insomnia disorder (INS; 24 females and 6 males, mean age: 43.87±13.73 years) and 26 healthy controls (HC; 13 females and 13 males, mean age: 37.08±13.40 years) who completed questionnaires about sleep and affect as well as computerized attention tasks and nocturnal polysomnography assessments. Results: Although there were no significant differences in attention performance between the INS and HC groups, correlation analyses revealed that the two groups exhibited different patterns in the relationships of sleep-related symptoms with attention performance. The insomnia patients reported severe difficulties with sleep initiation or frequent negative thoughts related to sleep, and these symptoms were correlated with poorer attention performance. In contrast, the poor sleep disturbance was associated with good attention performance in the HC group. Conclusion: The present results indicated that the attention complaints of insomnia patients may be associated with the failure to maintain attentional effort due to sleep-related psychological symptoms or anxiety rather than objective cognitive impairments.

Polysomnographic Sleep and Attentional Deficits in Traumatized North Korean Refugees

“…[12][13][14] The influence of sleep on attention is well known. [15][16][17] Sleep deprivation impairs cognitive functions including attention, and poor sleep quality has been linked with negative cognitive bias and decreased sustained attention. 18 Sleep has been proposed to have a bidirectional interaction with cognitive function in traumatized people.…”