Weekly changes in psychophysiological variables of 8- to 10-year-old school girls.
Three groups of schoolgirls 8, 9, and 10 years of age, respectively, self assessed sleep onset/offset and duration, as well as oral temperature and a set of cognitive measures, at school at 09:00, 11:00, 14:00, and 16:00 h on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (and/or Saturday) for 2 consecutive weeks (spring 1987 and 1989). The scores of a letter cancellation test exhibited neither daily nor weekly temporal variation at the age of 8 years [analysis of variance (ANOVA), p > 0.05]. In contrast, in the 10-year-olds, changes as a function of both time of day (peak time 14:00-16:00 h) and day of week (peak day Tuesday-Friday) were substantiated. Moreover, the time of best performance on the letter cancellation test varied systematically according to the day of the week (ANOVA, p = 0.000). Day of the week changes in the observed duration of sleep, self-rated fatigue, drowsiness, and attention changes were not detected in any of the age groups. It is hypothesized that temporal performance variations in the girls during the 7-day period was age related.
Guérin
N
N
UFR de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
Boulenguiez
S
S
Reinberg
A
A
Di Costanzo
G
G
Guran
P
P
Touitou
Y
Y
D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D001831:Body Temperature; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D010507:Periodicity; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012890:Sleep