Effects of Sleep Inertia on Cognition
- Adam T. Wertz, BS
-
Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory
Department of Integrative Physiology
University of Colorado
Boulder
- Joseph M. Ronda, MS
-
Division of Sleep Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Mass
- Charles A. Czeisler, PhD, MD
-
Division of Sleep Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Mass
-
kenneth.wright@colorado.edu
Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory
Department of Integrative Physiology
University of Colorado
Boulder
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- COGNITION DISORDERS
- SLEEP STAGES
To the Editor: The state of impaired cognition, grogginess, and disorientation commonly experienced on awakening from sleep has been referred to as sleep inertia.1 Morning cognitive impairment associated with sleep inertia has been described as modest1 but has not been well quantified. Because some safety-sensitive occupations require individuals to perform immediately on awakening, we directly compared the effects of sleep inertia and sleep deprivation on cognition.
Methods
Participants were 9 paid volunteers (mean [SD] age, 29.1 [6.4] years; range, 20-41 years; 8 men) with no medical, psychiatric, or sleep disorders. They were free of medications, alcohol, nicotine, recreational drugs, and caffeine for 3 weeks before the study, verified by toxicologic analysis. Persons who had performed shift work in the past 3 years or traveled across more than 1 time zone in the previous 3 months were excluded.
Participants maintained sleep schedules of about 8 hours per night for 3 …
