Meditation is Effective in Reducing Sleepiness and Improving Sustained Attention Following Acute Sleep Restriction

Abstract

Optimal information processing requires appropriate mobilization of mental resources. Sleep loss increases homeostatic sleep pressure, thereby reducing mobilization of mental resources and consequently diminishing attention function. Meditation techniques engage attention processes and mobilize mental resources needed to sustain control of these processes, suggesting a promising role for meditation in counteracting attention deficits associated with sleep loss. Following a 21-day training period with a concentrative form of yoga nidra meditation, participants completed tests of sustained attention and attention interference control, and reported sleepiness and fatigue before and after restricted sleep, and then again after a session of meditation or rest following a crossover design. Sustained attention, sleepiness, and fatigue, but not attention interference control, were impaired following a single night of sleep restriction. Following a session of meditation, sustained attention performance improved and sleepiness decreased. Rest alone did not provide these benefits. These findings provide evidence that meditation can improve attention deficits following sleep loss. The impact of meditation on attention can be explained by reduced mobilization of mental processes since this improvement was associated with reduced sleepiness. A brief period of meditation training appears to be sufficient to elicit meditation benefits for attention following sleep loss. However, the duration of improvement following a bout of meditation remains unknown.

Does Meditation Improve Cognition Through Sleep?

“…As further support for this hypothesis, meditation has also been shown to alleviate cognitive decline associated with sleep-deprivation (Chatterjee et al, 2012(Chatterjee et al, , 2018Kaul et al, 2010;Kohler et al, 2017).…”

Functional connectivity and temporal dynamics of EEG in novice meditators: Association of psychomotor vigilance test performance changes and mean phase coherence

“…To take a more rigorous analytical approach to coherence and power, we applied phase synchronization to analyze functional connectivity during meditation. Other phase locking methods have found increased gamma (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40) coherence during rest and during loving kindness meditation (19), increased theta coherence during open monitoring Vipassana meditation (20), and increased alpha coherence during TM (5).…”

“…Throughout the varied histories of meditation traditions there have been fantastic claims and benefits that their training can bring, along with more modest claims, such as increased emotional regulation, stress reduction, improved attentional performance, and increased lifespan (11,20,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36). This study aims to determine the short-term impact of meditation on physiological attention in novices.…”

“…Manual inspection of flagged artifacts shows that all slow frequency, high amplitude artifacts were correctly flagged, and data were removed. Continuous data were split into the following frequencies: delta (0.5-3 Hz), theta (3-7 Hz), alpha (7-13 Hz), beta (13-30 Hz), and gamma (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45). We then calculated mean phase coherence, as first applied to EEG by Mormann and colleagues in epilepsy patients (21).…”

Editorial Special Topic: Enhancing Brain and Cognition Through Meditation

“…The data showed that the degree to which participants improved their understanding of themselves predicted their improvements in understanding others' mental states, namely, theory of mind (TOM) performance. Kohler et al (2017) investigated the effects of a concentrative form of yoga nidra meditation on attention performance in a sample of ten young healthy participants before and after restricted sleep and again after a session of meditation or rest. Following meditation, but not rest, sustained attention improved and sleepiness decreased, a finding that could indicate a role for meditation in improving attention deficits associated with sleep loss.…”