Impact of Different Durations of Sleep Deprivation on Coordination

Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, and inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and it is more easily reversible than being in hibernation or a coma. During sleep, most systems in an animal are in a heightened anabolic state, accentuating the growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems etc. It is observed in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and (in some form) in insects and even simpler animals such as nematodes. In the hurry of modern life for the struggle for existence, people are neglecting to get enough sleep. They are “burning the candle at both ends” over indulging in activity and reducing the hour of rest and sleep. The human organism is made in such a way that it will stand considerable abuse without showing injurious effects, but neglect of the fundamental principles of exercise and rest will sooner or later demands its toll. Experiment has shown that lack of sleep, which actually had little effect on the body if there has been adequate rest, seriously disturbs the mental processes. After 30 to 60 hours of continuous sleeplessness, such reaction as irritation, loss of memory and even symptoms of schizophrenia may begin to appear. In laboratory experiments deprivation of REM (Rapid eye movement) sleep and consequently of dreaming leads to irritability, anxiety, poor motor coordination and difficulty to concentrate and remember.

Ten male subjects from Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior were selected. The age of subjects was ranging between 19 to 23 years with (Mean ± SD; Age 20.80± 1.47 years, Height 170.8 ± 3.32 cms, Weight 65.70 ± 3.71 kgs, Subjects were asked to provide written or voluntary consent prior to participation. The subjects were studying in Bachelor Degree in Physical Education. The subjects were informed about the purpose of the study. Further, they were also informed that the data will remain confidential and will not be used beyond any academic purpose. Each subject underwent each treatment of sleep deprivation.

In order to examine the hypotheses of the study, descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, was used. In order to see the impact of different duration of sleep deprivation on coordination one way repeated measure ANOVA was employed. In case of only significant main effect result, Bonferroni correction was employed for pair-wise comparisons to find the mean difference among the durations.

Table 2 reveals the descriptive statistics of the coordination at various durations i.e. 00 hour, 20 hours, 22 hours, and 24 hours The mean and standard deviation of coordination at 00 hour, 20 hours, 22 hours, and 24 hours are 79.1 ± 25.43, 65.5 ± 13.27, 49.3 ± 12.45, 63.7 ± 14.69 respectively. The mean scores indicated that coordination were higher in the duration of „0 hour‟ followed by „20 hours‟, „24 hours‟ and at last, „22 hours‟. The variance of the data on coordination at 00hour, 20 hours, 22 hours, and 24 hours was found to be 647.1, 176.1, 155.1, and 215.9 respectively. The skewness of the data on coordination at 00hour, 20 hours, 22 hours, and 24 hours was found to be -.34, -.37, .78, and -.65 respectively. The kurtosis of the data on coordination at 00hour, 20 hours, 22 hours, and 24 hours was found to be .23, 1.99, .47, and-1.07 respectively. The data sets were found normal in the variable of coordination for all the durations because none of the data set has significant skewness or kurtosis. For the graphical representation of the mean scores of the selected subjects at selected durations on coordination has been represented in the figure.

Figure shows that value of coordination was highest at 00 hour and 20 hours whereas lowest value of coordination found at 22 hours of sleep deprivation.

To test the assumption of sphericitymauchleys test was applied and the results revealed that the assumption of sphericity was not fulfilled as the p value is lessthan 0.05 level of significance.

Table shows the results of test of within subject effects. It was observed that there is a significant difference among the various measures of coordination as the p value is less than 0.05 level of significance. So to know where exactly the difference lies, pairwise comparison with bonferroni post hoc comparison was applied.

Coordination was also selected as a psychomotor variable which was taken into the study and analyzed. The within-within subjects effects was found significant which means coordination in different durations were compared. The researcher has employed pairwise comparison in which coordination was found differ in between 00 hours and 22 hour and 20 hours and 24 hours, which shows a significant difference in coordination during these durations. This result shows that due to sleep coordination becomes reduced at those durations. The coordination factor decreases after sleep deprivation but has shown an inconclusive result as its value increases and decreases with the increase in the time of sleep deprivation.

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PhD Scholar, LNIPE, Gwalior