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Age and individual variability in performance during sleep restriction
Author(s) -
BLIESE PAUL D.,
WESENSTEN NANCY J.,
BALKIN THOMAS J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2006.00557.x
Subject(s) - sleep restriction , sleep (system call) , sleep loss , psychology , audiology , demography , sleep deprivation , developmental psychology , medicine , cognition , neuroscience , computer science , sociology , operating system
Summary The effect of sleep loss on reaction time (RT) performance varies as a function of age, with RTs of older subjects typically showing less decrement (relative to rested baseline) than those of younger subjects. In the current paper, we examined the nature of this relationship in a 7‐day sleep restriction study. The number of repeated measures made it possible to model both intra‐individual trajectories over days and individual differences in these trajectories. Results revealed (a) consistent individual differences in RT patterns over time after controlling for experimental design effects; (b) less cumulative RT decline among older individuals regardless of the degree of sleep restriction; and (c) consistent individual variability in performance patterns even after accounting for the effects of age.