Maria Josè Esposito | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Postural control after a night without sleep.

The present study analysed the efficiency of postural control after 12 h of nocturnal forced wakefulness using Romberg's test comprising 1 min of recording with eyes-open and 1 min of recording with eyes-closed, with a 1 min break between the two sessions. Our aim was to see if the decreased postural control efficiency after a sleepless night was unspecific (in both eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions) or selective (in only one of the conditions). A total of 55 students spent a whole night awake at our laboratory and were tested at 22:00 and 08:00 h. In general, the results showed that postural sway increased, performing the recording from eyes-open to eyes-closed condition. The statokinesigram length (SL or efficiency of the postural system) increased after the sleepless night, while in eyes-open condition, the length in function of surface (LFS or accuracy of postural control) and Romberg's index (or contribution of vision to maintain posture) significantly decreased. This could indicate that after a night without sleep, there is a slower elaboration of visual inputs in the postural control process. On the basis of these results, the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance were considered from a neuropsychological point of view.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Reduced Alpha power associated with the recall of mentation from Stage 2 and Stage REM sleep.

Relationships between Alpha (8-12 Hz) activity and cognitive processes during wakefulness raise the possibility of similar relationships between Alpha and cognitive activity during sleep. We hypothesized that Alpha power decreases during both Stage 2 and REM sleep would index the presence of sleep mentation in these stages. Absolute power for six classical EEG bands and three Alpha subbands was calculated for Stage 2 and REM sleep awakenings both with and without mentation recall. In both stages, recall was associated with lower Alpha power, especially with middle Alpha power (9.5-11.5 Hz). Unexpectedly, a similar effect for Delta power (0.5-4.0 Hz) was also observed. The Alpha effect may reflect cognitive elaboration active in the minutes preceding awakening; however, attention and memory processes cannot be excluded. The Delta effect is consistent with prior observations of regular linkages between Alpha and Delta power during sleep.

Alpha Rhythm↗