Türk Uyku Tıbbı Dergisi (Jun 2018)

The Effect of Appetitive Daytime Napping on Cognitive Functions

  • İpek Ergönül,
  • Gonca İnanç,
  • Serhat Taşlıca,
  • Murat Özgören,
  • Adile Öniz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4274/jtsm.55264
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 2
pp. 27 – 30

Abstract

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Objective:The need for sleep is universal and its function is not completely clarified. Daytime alertness decreases after midday and one of the ways of preventing this decrease is daytime napping. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects 60-minutes appetitive daytime napping on cognitive performance.Materials and Methods:This study was carried out at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biophysics Sleep Dynamics Research Laboratory. Participants who came to the sleep laboratory in two different days slept one day and the other day were included in the control group. A total of 14 healthy individuals between age of 19-24 (5 male; mean age: 21.86±1.23 years) without any neurological, psychological, chronic diseases, or sleep disorders were included in the study. Participants slept on their regular sleep pattern before both conditions. Various cognitive tests were administered to participants before sleep recordings. Electroencephalography was used on the purpose of following the sleep/wakefulness situation while sleeping. At the end of 60-minutes, the participants were woken up and after then same tests were performed again. On the control day, without sleep recording, determined questionnaires were applied to the participants. The resting period was set 60-minutes as it was during the sleeping period.Results:Cognitive performances of 14 participants on napping and control conditions were measured. The average duration of sleep was 57.3 (±3.57) minutes. Participants’ scores of N-Back, Psychomotor Vijilans test, and Timewall tests on both conditions were examined. Although there were differences in the scores they were not significant.Conclusion:Daytime napping has different effects on cognitive functions. In future studies, it is aimed that the evaluation of the replacement and appetitive daytime napping in terms of the behavioral and sleep stages as electrophysiologically.

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