A Visual ERP Study Of Executive Function Following Nap Induced By Zaleplon After Sleep Deprivation

Sleep loss often occurs in modern life. Then what comes next is increased fatigue,impaired cognitive function, declined work performance. Sleep loss is inevitable whenstaffs face with the urgent and long-lasting tasks in some special fields, such as militarycondition, rescue work, ect. Although there will be a short break, due to the combinedeffect of inner emotions, such as stress, anxiety and other adverse external environment,for instance, light and noise, the quality of sleep is difficult to guarantee. In order toimprove the quality of sleep in such an environment, the use of hypnotic drug hasbecome very important. But there are some side effects of the traditional hypnotic drugs,such as the residual effects, affecting the normal sleep rhythm and strong withdrawalreactions. Therefore, it is necessary to explore better ways.The side effects of zaleplon-induced nap as a countermeasure in the reduction ofimpulse inhibition function decline following30hrs of sleep deprivation were examined through event-related brain potentials. Sixteen adult participants took part in ourexperiment4times by random, double blind and self control design. They receivedzaleplon10mg with2h or4h nap, or placebo10mg with2h or4h nap. Each experimentwas separated by a washout period of ten days. Participants carried out a Go/Nogo task atfive time points in each experiment:(1) baseline;(2)30hrs after SD;(3) suddenawakening,(also called2h post-drug or4h post-drug);(4)4h post-drug (6h post-drug);(5)6h post-drug (8h post-drug).Results and conclusions:1. Both in zaleplon and placebo condition, reaction time and false alarm ratesincreased after SD; the latencies of Nogo-P3and Nogo-N2prolonged while theamplitude of Nogo-P3markedly decreased at this two time points. The result indicatesthat SD attenuates resource allocation and error monitoring for Nogo stimuli.2. Both in zaleplon and placebo condition, the latencies of Nogo-P3and Nogo-N2continued to prolong while the amplitude of Nogo-P3continued to decrease at suddenawakening. This result indicates that executive function suffers from sleep inertia. Theperformance of placebo condition was better than zaleplon in2h recovery nap group, butthe performance was no difference between placebo and zaleplon condition in4hrecovery nap group. This result indicates that the side effects of zaleplon lasted at leastsomewhat2h post-drug.3. Nogo-P3and Nogo-N2latencies were shorter and Nogo-P3amplitude was largerin2h (4h) recovery nap group at4h (6h) and6h (8h) post-drug. The result indicates thatnaps enhanced performance and alertness during continuous operations.4. Nogo-P3and Nogo-N2latencies were shorter and Nogo-P3amplitude was largerin zaleplon group than placebo group at4h and6h post-drug under2h recovery napcondition. These results indicate that zaleplon in a dose of10mg/day helped subjects geta better maintenance of impulse inhibition function for short time nap.5. There was no difference between zaleplon and placebo group at6h and8hpost-drug under4h recovery nap condition. The result indicates that it is not necessary totake drug for4h nap.