Effects of sleep restriction on cognition in women

The aim of the present study was to investigate how three nights of sleep restriction affected cognitive functions in young and aged healthy women. Ten young (20–30 years) and ten aged (55–65 years) women participated to the study. After one baseline night (11pm–07am), their sleep was restricted to 4 h per night (01–05am) during three nights. A recovery night of 8 h (11 pm–07 am) followed the sleep restriction. The neurobehavioural assessment included evaluation of Attention (Stroop, Trail Making test, Tests of Attentional Performance), Memory (Buschke, Logical Memory, PASAT, Brown Peterson), Addition of numbers and Abstraction (Wisconsin). Sleep restriction decreased significantly the speed of execution, particularly in the young women, without affecting the accuracy of the answers. This effect was the most significant on reaction times in simple tests. The more complex tasks (PASAT, Brown Peterson, Logical Memory, Addition of numbers, Wisconsin) were not affected. However, the inhibition of an automatic activity (Stroop test) and the formation of a memory trace (Buschke memory test) were disturbed in both young and older women.