The effect of partial sleep deprivation on the reaction time and the attentional capacities of the handball goalkeeper

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of partial sleep deprivation on the cognitive performances of the handball goalkeeper (GK) in terms of attention and reaction time (RT). Twelve healthy male volunteers (18.5 ± 1.7 years; 8.3 ± 2.4 years of experiment) took part in the protocol. They performed three cognitive tasks, i.e., the RT test, the Stroop test, and the barrage test, respectively, to evaluate the RT, selective attention (SA), and constant attention (CA) following two situations of partial sleep deprivation, i.e., at the beginning (SDB) and the end (SDE) of the night, and a control situation (reference night), which is a full-night of habitual sleep. Our results showed a significant effect of partial deprivation of sleep on the studied parameters which is translated into an increased RT (p < 0.01) and a reduced level of attention (p < 0.01). It seems that the RT is more affected by SDE than SDB (p < 0.05; –41% vs. 49% after SDE and SDB, respectively); however, SA and CA are more affected by SDB than SDE (p < 0.05; 63% vs. 47% for SA and 39% vs. 29% for CA after SDB and SDE, respectively). In conclusion, partial sleep deprivation affects the RT (i.e., especially SDE) and the attentional capacities (i.e., especially SDB) of the handball GK.