Recovery of Performance During Sleep Following Sleep Deprivation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Very few studies have systematically examined recovery of performance after sleep deprivation. In the present study, 12 young adult males were sleep deprived for periods of 40 and 64 hrs. Each period was preceded by baseline nights of sleep and followed by two recovery nights of sleep. Immediate recall and reaction time were tested at 2300, 0145, 0400, 0615, and 0830 during baseline, deprivation, and recovery nights. Performance efficiency showed a progressive decline after 2 hrs of recovery sleep following both periods of deprivation. Return to baseline was apparent after 4 hrs of steep following 40 hrs awake and after 8 hrs of sleep following 64 hrs awake. These results suggested that, in terms of behavioral efficiency, an equal amount of sleep is not required to compensate for sleep lost.