Sleep and nutritional deprivation and performance of house officers.
A study was conducted by the authors to compare cognitive functioning in acutely and chronically sleep-deprived house officers. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant deficits in primary mental tasks involving basic rote memory, language, and numeric skills as well as in tasks requiring high-order cognitive functioning and traditional intellective abilities. These deficits existed only for the acutely sleep-deprived group. The finding of deficits in individuals who reported five hours or less of sleep in a 24-hour period suggests that the minimum standard of four hours that has been considered by some to be adequate for satisfactory performance may be insufficient for more complex cognitive functioning.
D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D005508:Food Deprivation; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012892:Sleep Deprivation