J Clin Neurol.  2012 Jun;8(2):146-150.

Adverse Effects of 24 Hours of Sleep Deprivation on Cognition and Stress Hormones

• Joo EY
• Yoon CW
• Koo DL
• Kim D
• Hong SB

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The present study was designed to investigate whether 24 h of SD negatively affects the attention and working memory and increases the serum concentrations of stress hormones, glucose, and inflammatory markers.
METHODS
The acute effects of sleep deprivation (SD) on cognition and the stress hormones were evaluated in six healthy volunteers (all men, age 23-27 years). All were good sleepers, had no history of medical or neuropsychiatric diseases, and were not taking any kind of medication. All of the volunteers were subjected to the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) for attention and working memory of cognition and blood tests both before and after 24 h of SD. Electroencephalographic monitoring was performed during the study to confirm the wakefulness of the subjects.
RESULTS
SD significantly elevated the serum concentrations of stress hormones (cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine), but serum levels of glucose and inflammatory markers were not changed compared to baseline. For easier steps of the CPT the subjects performed well in giving correct responses after SD; the correct response scores decreased only at the most difficult step of the CPT. However, the subjects performed consistently poor for the error responses at all steps after SD. There was no correlation between the CPT scores and stress hormone levels.
CONCLUSIONS
The 24 h of SD significantly heightened the levels of stress hormones and lowered attention and working memory. The acute SD condition seems to render the subject more susceptible to making errors.

Keyword

sleep deprivation; attention; working memory; stress hormone

MeSH Terms

Cognition
Epinephrine
Glucose
Hematologic Tests
Humans
Male
Memory, Short-Term
Sleep Deprivation
Wakefulness
Epinephrine
Glucose

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Comparison of serum concentrations of stress hormones before and after 24 h of SD. Mean serum concentrations of cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine were significantly increased after SD. *p<0.05 (Wilcoxon signed-rank test with multiple comparisons). SD: sleep deprivation.

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  Fig. 2 Comparison of the Continuous Performance Test results before and after 24 h of sleep deprivation (SD). The mean scores of correct (A) and error (B) responses are shown before and after SD according to the test level (i.e., 1-3). The mean score of correct responses was significantly reduced after SD only at the most difficult test level. However, the mean scores of error responses were significantly increased at all test levels. *p<0.05 (Wilcoxon signed-rank test with multiple comparisons).

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