Abstract
Different levels of sleep restriction affect human performance in multiple aspects. However, it is unclear how sleep deprivation affects gait control. We applied a paced gait paradigm that included subliminal rhythm changes to analyze the effects of different sleep restriction levels (acute, chronic and control) on performance. Acute sleep deprivation (one night) group exhibited impaired performance in the sensorimotor synchronization gait protocol, such as a decrease in the Period Error between the footfalls and the auditory stimulus as well as missing more frequently the auditory cues. The group with chronic sleep restriction also underperformed when compared to the control group with a tendency to a late footfall with respect to the RAC sound. Our results suggest that partial or total sleep deprivation leads to a decrease in the performance in the sensorimotor control of gait. The superior performance of the chronic sleep group when compared to the acute group suggests that there is a compensatory mechanism that helps to improve motor performance.
Highlights
Different levels of sleep restriction affect human performance in multiple aspects
We investigated the influence of different sleep schedules on sensorimotor responses in a gait-auditory cueing synchronization paradigm with subliminal changes
Two different behaviors emerged: one sub-group compensated for loss sleep during the weekends and was considered as the reference Control Group (CG) and another that did not compensate over the weekend was named the Sleep Chronic Restriction group (SCR)
Summary
Different levels of sleep restriction affect human performance in multiple aspects It is unclear how sleep deprivation affects gait control. Sleep disturbances affect cognition and lead to a decreased performance in learning, attentional and motor tasks[1]. Sleep deprivation affects negatively the learning process, attention and reaction time[7,8] These impairments are associated with neural and cognitive diminished capacity related to lower metabolic rate in different regions of the central nervous system. Another study showed that college athletes with reduced sleep had greater difficulties in walking in tandem (toe-to-heel along a straight line) when executed together with a cognitive task This was attributed to the deterioration of the executive functions caused by shorter sleep that resulted in a lack of attention[15]
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