The Impact of Disrupted Sleep Schedules on Frontal Lobar Executive Functioning, Cognitive Flexibility, Inhibitory Control and Autonomic Reactivity among Nursing Students: A Cross-sectional Study
Cross-sectional study demonstrates impaired executive function and poorer sleep in night-shift nursing students, indicating heightened risk for clinical cognitive errors.
Key Points
To evaluate the impact of 12-hour night shift-induced sleep disruption on sleep quality, frontal lobe executive functions, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and autonomic reactivity in nursing students.
Conducted a cross-sectional study in India from August 2021 to April 2022 among 72 nursing students, comprising 36 working 12-hour night shifts and 36 daytime controls.
Assessed sleep quality via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and evaluated cognitive and executive functions using the Iowa Trail Making Test (ITMT), Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), and a computerized Go/No-Go test.
Measured autonomic reactivity via heart rate and blood pressure at baseline and during the Go/No-Go cognitive stressor, comparing groups using Student's t-test and ANOVA.
Shift workers took significantly longer to complete the ITMT compared to controls on both Part A (27±8.9 vs. 19±4.2 seconds, p=0.001) and Part B (176±7.54 vs. 101±5.55 seconds, p=0.04).
FAB scores reflecting frontal lobe executive function were significantly lower in shift workers (12.21±0.4) compared to controls (18.0±0.9, p=0.004).
Night shift workers demonstrated worse sleep quality with higher PSQI scores (19±2.1), while baseline heart rate and blood pressure did not differ significantly between cohorts (p>0.05).