Abstract
College students face consistent cognitive demands and often get insufficient and/or irregular sleep. The current study investigated associations of sleep duration and sleep variability with attentional performance. Sleep duration variability was expected to moderate the association between duration and cognitive functioning. College students’ (n = 83) natural sleep patterns were recorded via wristband actigraphy across three consecutive nights during an academic term. The association between sleep duration and attentional capture was strongest for those whose sleep was the most consistent across the three nights preceding the attentional task (i.e., low sleep duration variability). For those with low sleep duration variability, less sleep was associated (B = −0.25) with reduced ability to ignore irrelevant cues and redirect attention to target locations. In other words, consistently low sleep duration was associated with compromises in attention. Our results indicate the importance of consistent sleep routines as well as sufficient sleep duration in order to optimize attentional performance in college students.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Washington and Lee University Lenfest Grant Program and the David G. Elmes Term Professorship. Appreciation is expressed to David Pfaff of the Washington and Lee University IQ Center for technological assistance.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Handling editor: Howard Bowman (University of Birmingham, UK).
Reviewers: Lilac Lev Ari (Ruppin Academic Center, Netanya, Israel), Srivas Chennu (University of Cambridge, UK).
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Whiting, W.L., Murdock, K.K. Emerging adults’ sleep patterns and attentional capture: the pivotal role of consistency. Cogn Process 17, 155–162 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-016-0754-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-016-0754-9