Impairment of reaction time among children awakened during stage 4 sleep.

Full Abstract

STUDY

OBJECTIVE:
Sleep inertia refers to impairments in cognitive/motor performance and the tendency to return to sleep after awakening. As part of a project studying the effect of different types of 100 decibel (dB) sounds on awakening children during stage 4 sleep (S4S), we hypothesized that children with the greatest impairment in auditory arousal during S4S, manifested by the inability to either awaken to 100 dB sounds or successfully perform a self-rescue sequence (SRS), would have greater impairments in reaction time (RT) upon awakening than children who awoke and successfully accomplish a SRS.

DESIGN:
Observational study.

SETTING:
Pediatric hospital-based sleep center.

PARTICIPANTS:
Healthy children aged 6-12 years.

INTERVENTIONS:
N/A.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS:
RT was measured in 44 children approximately 90 minutes before bedtime and again after awakening by either 100 dB alarms or manually during the first and second cycles of S4S. Overall, mean and median RT slowed significantly by 37% and 22%, respectively, from baseline. Slowing of RT was most evident in the youngest children (aged 6-7 years) and after awakening from the second S4S cycle. Impairments in RT were not significantly different among children who successfully awakened to the alarm and performed a SRS compared with children who did not.

CONCLUSIONS:
The degree of slowing of RT was not significantly different among children who awakened and performed an SRS compared with children who did not. The greatest slowing of RT was seen among younger children and after awakening from the second S4S cycle.

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Author information

Author/s: Splaingard, Mark (M); Hayes, John (J); Smith, Gary A (GA);

Affiliation: Columbus Children's Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Columbus, OH, USA. splaingm(-atsign-)pediatrics.ohio-state.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Sleep (Sleep), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jan; vol 30 (issue 1) : pp 104-8

Dates: Created 2007/02/21; Completed 2007/03/30;

PMID: 17310871, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Psychomotor Performance
Reaction Time
Safety
Sleep Arousal Disorders - psychology
Sleep Stages
Sound Spectrography
Wakefulness

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