Attention, learning, and arousal of experimentally sleep-restricted adolescents in a simulated classroom.
OBJECTIVE
To experimentally test whether chronic sleep restriction, which is common among adolescents, is causally related to poor learning, inattentive behaviors, and diminished arousal in a classroom-like situation.


METHODS
Sixteen healthy adolescents underwent a sleep manipulation that included, in counterbalanced order, five consecutive nights of sleep deprivation (6½ hours in bed) versus five nights of healthy sleep duration (10 hours in bed). At the end of each condition, participants viewed educational films and took related quizzes in a simulated classroom. Eight participants also underwent video and electroencephalography monitoring to assess levels of inattentive behaviors and arousal, respectively.


RESULTS
As compared with the healthy sleep condition, sleep-deprived participants had lower quiz scores (p = .05), more inattentive behaviors (p < .05), and lower arousal (p = .08).


CONCLUSIONS
These pilot data complement previous correlational reports by showing that chronic sleep restriction during adolescence can cause inattention, diminished learning, and lowered arousal in a simulated classroom.
Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA. dean.beebe@cchmc.org
Dean W
DW
Beebe
Douglas
D
Rose
Raouf
R
Amin
D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D012106:Research; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000150:complications*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014481:United States