Ricerc@Sapienza

Background and objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a partial sleep depri- vation night on executive functions in participants reporting chronic insomnia and good sleepers using a Task Switching paradigm. Methods: Sixteen participants reporting symptoms of chronic insomnia and sixteen good sleepers were tested after a night of habitual sleep and after a night of partial sleep deprivation (5 h of sleep allowed). The Switch Cost (SC) and the Backward Inhibition (BI) were computed as measures of switching attention and response inhibition, respectively. Results: We observed a marginally significant interaction Night×Group on SC (F(1,29)=4.06, p=0.053), η2 = 0.123. Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) post-hoc revealed a smaller SC after the sleep deprived night relative to the habitual night for the good sleepers (p = 0.027; M = 192.23 ± 201.81 vs M = 98.99 ± 141.16). Differently, participants with insomnia did not show any change after the two nights. Limitations: Several limitations must be acknowledged including the use of a convenient sample of university students and the use of a single task of cognitive performance. Conclusions: We found that SC was smaller in the good sleepers after a night of partial sleep deprivation com- pared to a habitual night, indicating a better switching performance. The insomnia group showed no differences in performance after the two experimental nights. Several factors may account for these results, including in- creased levels of arousal and cognitive effort during task execution