Effects Of Sleep On Attention&Psychomotor Speed,Executive Function And Memory Of Youth Students

Background: Sleep promotes memory consolidation.Previous studies have focused on declarative and procedural memory,but there are few studies on attention,psychomotor speed,executive function and other cognitive functions,and the conclusions are inconsistent.Objective: To explore the effects of sleep on attention & psychomotor speed,executive function and memory of healthy youth students,and to analyze other possible influencing factors of attention & psychomotor speed,executive function and memory,so as to provide scientific basis for improving the cognitive function of youth students.Methods: This study selected healthy youth students in a university in Chengdu as the research object,recruited a total of 102 youth students and included 66 subjects who met the standards.A randomized,controlled experiment was conducted,and 66 cases were divided into study group(n = 33)and control group(n = 33)according to 1 : 1.In the end,32 youth students in study group and 30 youth students in control group completed all experiments.The Cambridge Neuropsychosocial Automated Test(CANTAB)was used to assess cognitive function,Attention & psychomotor speed were assessed by Motor Screening Task(MOT)and Reaction Time(RTI),executive function were assessed by Intra-Extra Dimensional Set Shift(IED)and Spatial Working Memory(SWM),memory were assessed by Pattern Recognition Memory(PRM)and Paired Associates Learning(PAL).There were two test stages.The study group and the control group were required to complete all Cantab tasks in each stage.The study group kept 8 hours of sleep at night,and the Cantab tasks were used to evaluate related cognitive functions before and after sleep,with a12-hour interval.The control group completed the Cantab tasks before and after the same long wake-up interval during the day.Self-made general condition questionnaire,Morning and Evening Questionnaire-19(MEQ-19)were used to collect the subjects’ general information and circadian rhythm.SPSS25.0software was used for data analysis.The CANTAB test results of the study group and the control group were compared in the two test stages respectively,and the differences in CANTAB test under different demographic characteristics and circadian rhythm were compared,and the correlations between circadian rhythm and attention,psychomotor speed,executive function and memory was discussed.Results: 1.A total of 24 males(38.7%)and 38 females(61.3%)were included in this study.The mean age was 24.00±1.96.The mean body mass index was 21.01±3.02,and 14.5% of the students were overweight.12.9% of the youth students took exercise regularly,25.8% took exercise sometimes and50.0% took exercise occasionally.Only 9.7% of youth students’ circadian rhythms were moderately morningness type,while the moderately eveningness type accounted for 46.8%.2.There were no differences in gender,age,BMI,years of education,physical exercise,circadian rhythm and the results of MOT,RTI,IED,SWM,PRM and PAL in the first stage between the study group and the control group(all P>0.05).3.In the second stage,the mean latency of MOT in the study group was shorter than that in the control group,with statistical significance(P<0.05);The total errors and the total between errors of SWM in the study group were loess than those in the control group(all P<0.01).There was no significant differences in the results of RTI,IED,PRM and PAL between the two groups in the second stage(all P>0.05).4.In MOT test,the mean latency of male was longer than that of female,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).In SWM test,the total within errors of individuals who exercised regularly or sometimes was less than those who exercised occasionally or not(P<0.05).In PRM test,the percent correct immediate of individuals with different ranges of BMI was different(P<0.05),and the percent correct immediate of individuals with low or normal weight was significantly higher than that of individuals with overweight weight(P<0.05).There was no statistical difference in the results of MOT,RTI,IED,SWM,PRM and PAL among individuals of different ages(all P>0.05).5.Univariate analysis of variance(ANOVA)showed that in SWM test,the total within errors of individuals with moderately morningness type and neutral type of circadian rhythm was less than that of individuals with moderately eveningness type(all P<0.05),and Pearson correlation analysis showed that MEQ-19 score of youth students was negatively correlated with the mean latency of MOT test(P<0.05).Conclusion: 1.Sleep can promote the improvement of cognitive function of youth students,which is mainly manifested in the improvement of psychomotor speed and spatial working memory.2.Gender,physical exercise,circadian rhythm and body mass index(BMI)are some influencing factors for cognitive function of youth students.