The Effects of 24-Hour Sleep Deprivation on Cognitive and Motor Skills of Male College Students

Abstract

Background. Sleep is assumed to be a critical factor for human physiological and cognitive function. Lack of sleep is a common condition in daily life. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of 24-hour sleep deprivation on cognitive and motor skills in university students. Methods. The participants were volunteers that consisted of 290 male students aged 19-25 years. After primary screening, the subjects were randomly divided into two groups of cognitive tests and motor task test. Cognitive tests were included the reaction time (simple and choice), the working memory test (1-back & 2-back task) and attention (selective and divided). In the motor group, the subjects were divided into four experimental groups including (physical, observational, mental and combined training) and four paired control groups who were exposed to badminton short service training. The experimental groups were trained with 24-h sleep deprivation and the control group was trained without sleep deprivation. In the acquisition stage, each subject was trained using his routine training method. After training, the subjects were followed a normal day-night sleep pattern. At 24, 72 and 168 h after acquisition, a short-service retention test was taken from participants. Results. The results of cognitive tests showed that sleep deprivation had no effect on reaction time, working memory (1-back) and selective attention, but it had a major effect on working memory (2-back) and divided attention (p=0.02). The results of motor test showed that sleep deprivation did not have an effect on acquisition and retention in both physical and combined groups. (p>0.05).Sleep deprivation did not have an effect on the skill acquisition in the observation group (p>0.05); however, in the retention tests, the control group significantly showed a better performance. Skill acquisition in the mental training group was significantly affected by sleep deprivation and this effect was obvious in the retention tests (p=0.0001). Conclusion. The results showed that, under conditions of sleep deprivation, some cognitive functions (working memory 2-back test & divided attention) were affected and that physical and combined training were preferred at the time of training to acquire new motor skills.

Alcohol and Caffeine Co-Administration Increased Acetylcholinesterase Activity and Inflammatory Cytokines in Sleep-Deprived Rats: Implications for Cognitive Decline and Depressive-Like Manifestations

“…5 ). This finding was similar to that of a previous study 65 that reported no significant increase in motor activity under 24 hours of oxidative stress. However, another study 66 reported a finding to the contrary: reduced motor activity in sleep deprivation, including the ability to execute instructions.…”

“…The administration of alcohol to SD rats significantly increased motor activity when compared to non-treated sleep deprived rats in the current study. This observation correlates to that of a previous study, 65 which reported that the brain adenosine system represents a common pathway for the effects of ethanol and sleep deprivation on motor activity. Caffeine-treated rats were observed to display increased motor activity when compared to the control group.…”

“…This observation may be attributed to the antagonist measure of caffeine against poor motor activity performance in sleep deprivation by blocking receptor binding and thus has different neurochemicals effects. 64,65 However, the co-administration of alcohol and caffeine in SD rats significantly decreased motor activity. Such a decrease could be due to the oxidative stress caused by the co-administration of alcohol and caffeine potentiating differential neurochemical effects.…”

Sleep Deprivation Influences Trial-to-Trial Transfer but Not Task Performance

“…Sleep deprivation affected trial-to-trial transfer in this study, which may partly be attributed to the interference with the visuomotor memory. Short- or long-term sleep deprivation was found to affect cognitive functions, including reaction time, working memory, and attention [ 27 , 28 ]. For instance, different types of sleep deprivation were reported to exert visual working memory impairment to different degrees [ 29 ].…”

The Acute Readiness Monitoring Scale: Assessing Predictive and Concurrent Validation

“…All participants engaged in the sleep deprivation protocol within seven days of completing the baseline assessments. Twenty four-hour sleep deprivation protocols have been used extensively to understand the impact of fatigue on cognitive and physical performance (Joo et al, 2012;Trksak et al, 2013;Ghanbari et al, 2019;Ołpińska-Lischka et al, 2020). On the day of the sleep deprivation protocol, participants completed the ARMS and biological measures of readiness (HRV, saliva sample) at home, prior to breakfast.…”