Effects of 24-H Steep Deprivation on Sustained Attention

*Corresponding autor e-mail: jazᵣi@yahoo. com. mx Introduction: Sleep deprivation produces sleepiness, tiredness, and errors in school and work performance. These difficulties in performance could be due to a decrease in basic cognitive processes such as attention. This cognitive process is the capacity to respond to the environment and has four different components: tonic alertness, phasic alertness, selective attention and sustained attention. Sustained attention is the capacity to respond efficiently to the environment during prolonged periods (from minutes to hours). There are three indices of sustained attention: general stability of efficiency, time on task stability and short-term stability. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of 24-h sleep deprivation on sustained attention. Methods: Participants were 20 undergraduate students (9 male, 11 female), mean age= 17. 801. 06 (16-20) years. They were divided in two groups: control (5 males, 5 females) and 24-h sleep deprived (4 males, 6 females). Participants of the control group were allowed to sleep, whereas participants of the sleep deprived group remained awake during one night. Cognitive performance was assessed in both groups at 06: 00, 08: 00, 10: 00 and 12: 00 h. Attention was measured with a continuous performance task. Results: Compared to the control group, the sleep deprived group showed less general stability of efficiency (standard deviation of correct responses, control group 1. 370. 23, sleep deprivation group 2. 290. 21, U=16, p <0. 001; standard deviation of reaction time, control group 40. 933. 35, sleep deprived group 53. 383. 17, U=19, p <0. 05) ; lower time on task stability (control group -0. 220. 11, sleep deprived group -0. 410. 13, U=12, p <0. 05) ; and less short term stability (error runs of 2 to 3 errors control group 10. 773. 30, sleep deprived group 22. 233. 07, U=19, p < 0. 01) ; error runs of more than three errors (control group 2. 771. 59, experimental group 10. 932. 84, U=17, p <0. 05). Conclusion: In conclusion, sleep deprivation for 24 h reduces all indices of sustained attention during the morning; this can reduce the efficiency at work and school, and increase the probability of accidents during the morning. Publication History Article published online: 16 June 2026 © 2009. Brazilian Sleep Academy. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https: //creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4. 0/) Thieme Revinter Publicações Ltda. Rua Rego Freitas, 175, loja 1, República, São Paulo, SP, CEP 01220-010, Brazil