Abstract

Vigilance is the ability to quickly identify and respond to unpredictable stimuli over an extended period. It is an important part of activities such as driving, flying and radar monitoring, and it is affected by sleep loss. We investigated the influence of mild sleep restriction on the behavioural and neural components of vigilance. We analysed behavioural and EEG data from the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) for 25 participants before and after a night of restricted sleep. Participants went to bed 3 hours later than normal and rose at their regular time, monitored via FitBit and sleep diary. Results showed an increase in PVT response times and a decrease in P3 event-related potential (ERP) peak amplitude with sleep restriction. The ERP P3 amplitude decrease was localised to the somatosensory association cortex, Brodmann area 5 (BA5). We also showed a significant reduction in resting state alpha oscillations after sleep restriction, which was most prominent centrally in the right hemisphere. Changes in individual alpha and delta power were associated with changes in subjective sleepiness and PVT performance. Overall, this adds to evidence that even mild sleep restriction is associated with changes in brain activity that may affect performance on tasks requiring vigilant attention